Notre Dame forward Nate Laszewski withdraws from NBA Draft, returns for fifth season
Nate Laszewski took his stay-or-go decision the distance. The Notre Dame forward spent more than two months going through the NBA pre-draft process and assessing his professional options.
In the end, he decided to put a pro career on hold for one more year.
Laszewski is withdrawing from the NBA Draft and coming back to play a fifth season at Notre Dame, he announced on social media Wednesday night. He had until 11:59 p.m. ET Wednesday to choose to remain in the draft or return to school. His announcement came just before 10 p.m.
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Most draft analysts did not consider Laszewski a likely draft pick. He was not invited to the NBA G League Elite Camp or the NBA Draft Combine in May. He held a pro day workout for NBA teams May 24 at IMPACT, the Las Vegas-based training facility where he had been working out this spring. The Atlanta Hawks brought him in for a pre-draft workout Monday.
Laszewski does, though, still have an attractive skill set that suits modern basketball, whether that’s at Notre Dame or in the pros. He’s a 6-10, 235-pound “stretch 4” forward who shot 44.7 percent on three-pointers and averaged 6.9 rebounds per game over the last two seasons. He averaged 9.3 points and 6.5 rebounds in 34 games this season, shooting 51.4 percent from the field. His 45.6 percent mark on three-pointers ranked 14th among qualified Division I players.
Laszewski is a two-year starter and four-year rotation player at Notre Dame. He averaged 13.3 points and 7.3 rebounds per game in 2020-21, shooting 58.9 percent overall and 43.4 percent from three-point range. He scored 1,126 points over his four seasons.
Most of his pro stock rested in his shooting ability, which was his most consistent contribution at Notre Dame. He opened 2020-21 with four straight double-figure games. Later that year, he made 11-of-18 threes in a two-game span against Virginia and North Carolina. This past season, he poured in six threes in a win over North Carolina and went 5-of-10 from deep in a victory over Syracuse.
Quiet games were mixed in too, though. Excluding two outings last February where he was limited due to injury, he scored five or fewer points seven times as a senior. He had just three in Notre Dame’s NCAA tournament loss to Texas Tech.
The option to play a fifth year did not become available to Laszewski until the fall of his junior season, when the NCAA passed a COVID-19 exemption that granted all 2020-21 college basketball players an extra season. Notre Dame guards Dane Goodwin and Trey Wertz are using it to play a fifth season in 2022-23, as is Niagara grad transfer Marcus Hammond. Guard Prentiss Hubb declined the option. Guard Cormac Ryan had prior fifth-year eligibility.
Notre Dame has 12 scholarship players for 2022-23 after Laszewski’s return. The Irish are still looking to add players from the transfer portal ahead of summer classes, which begin June 13. Penn grad transfer forward Michael Wang began an official visit Wednesday. Denver grad transfer forward Michael Henn named Notre Dame a finalist last week alongside Illinois and Penn State.
Freshman guard Blake Wesley and Hubb were Notre Dame’s two players to turn pro with eligibility remaining this spring. Wesley is a probable first-round pick in the June 23 draft. Hubb is not a projected draft pick. Forward Paul Atkinson Jr. exhausted his eligibility.
A Jupiter, Fla. native, Laszewski came to Notre Dame after playing at Gill (Mass.) Northfield Mount Hermon School. He was a four-star recruit and the No. 71 player in the 2018 class, per the On3 Consensus.
