Clemson forward PJ Hall declaring for 2023 NBA Draft, retaining college eligibility

Clemson star forward PJ Hall will test the NBA Draft waters this summer but will retain his college eligibility, allowing him to withdraw from the process by a certain date and keep playing in college. On3’s Matt Connolly of Clemson Sports confirmed the news.

Hall, a 6-foot-10, 235 pound forward, has starred for Clemson the last two seasons. In 2021-22 and 2022-23, Hall has averaged more than 15 points per game and nearly six rebounds a game. He raised he 3-point shooting to 40% after shooting just below 31% last season, while taking the same number of 3s per game.

With at least one year of college eligibility to use were he to pull out of the draft, Hall will potentially have a tough decision to make — all depending on what NBA evaluators make of him.

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Brad Brownell: Heart hurts for Clemson seniors after NCAA Tournament snub

Despite an impressive season, the Clemson Tigers missed out on the NCAA Tournament this year. Some feel that the Tigers got snubbed by not being a part of March Madness this year after a 23-10 finish to the season and a 14-6 conference record that was only bested by two other ACC teams. But head coach Brad Brownell feels that his senior class got snubbed the most.

“I’m really proud of this team, my heart hurts for Hunter Tyson, Brevin Galloway, the seniors,” Brownell said. “They don’t get another chance. And what those guys sacrificed and how hard they worked to put our team in this position to get a chance. That’s the part as a coach that you see that really – that just hurts you personally to have to watch that, watch those guys suffer a little bit.”

Clemson has wins over three of the five ACC teams that made it to the NCAA Tournament, likely adding an extra dose of ache for the Tigers’ senior class. But now their attention shifts to the National Invitation Tournament, where they’re a No. 1 seed facing Morehead State in their first round matchup on Thursday.

“Having said that I do think we’ll rally, I think our guys will hopefully shake it off today. Yesterday was tough and we can understand why, but today we’ve had to try to turn our attention to Morehead State. Got a lot of respect for them. We played them a couple years ago, coach Spradlin does a great job,” Brownell said.

Morehead State finished the season 21-11 and boasts the Ohio Valley Conference’s best defense this season, as Brownell previewed the Eagles’ personnel.

“Won their league again, they’ve been winning their league most years now, just a really good team. Great quickness, good speed, shoot the three, I think they had the defensive player of the year in the league, he does a really good job,” Brownell said. “They run some really good action, a lot of movement, a lot of pace to their offense, a lot of misdirection. It’s good stuff and you can see why he’s a good up and coming coach. So it’ll be a challenging game and we’ve got to shake off the cobwebs here and move forward, so we’ll see how we do at practice today, but try to get that energy back.”