One of the more underrated stories in the NBA Draft each year is the withdrawal of candidates who initially test the draft-class waters but pull back before the actual show for various reasons. Draft withdrawals can affect any team selecting below the premium lottery positions. This year that includes the Portland Trail Blazers.

Ricky O’Donnell of SB Nation has written about draft withdrawals this year. A partial list of players who stood a good chance of being drafted if they hadn’t withdrawn include Miles Byrd, Alex Condon, Boogie Fland, Karter Knox, Yaxel Lendeborg, Tahaad Pettiford, Labaron Philon, Milos Uzan, and Darrion Williams. None of these players projected to be a lottery pick, but Lendeborg and Pettiford for example were mocked pretty often as solid first round picks, while others were seen as late first round to early second round prospects.

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If it wasn’t clear already, it’s now unmistakable that NIL money is persuading many players to stay in the college ranks when previously they would have given the NBA draft a shot. Just 106 players registered as early entry candidates initially, a number now further reduced due to withdrawals. Compare that 2021, the last draft before NIL. 353 players registered that year. The total has declined every year since.

The numbers are a bit murky on how much exactly specific players are getting, but top player Cooper Flagg is said to have pulled down over $4 million this past season. We do know aggregate information; the average NIL amount from 8/1/2024 to 4/20/2025 was $53,643, but the median was just $3,371. This means that the top players were getting the lion’s share of NIL money. Just 9% of the players earned more than $10,000. Presumably multiple potential NBA draftees would lie in that top 9%.

If you get drafted this year at #25 in the first round, your salary is pegged at $2,983,320. Let’s say you slip into the second round. Your salary is no longer set by your draft position. You may be offered the NBA minimum of $1.27 million. Or perhaps a two-way contract at half that amount. Of course, there is also the risk that you get drafted and simply don’t make the team. Or not get drafted at all.

Instead, you get two huge advantages by going back to school. First, you’re now eligible to make as much NIL money was you would have gotten in the NBA if you would have been drafted in the first round outside of the lottery. If you were pegged to go in the second round, you’d make more. That’s money in the bank with no worry of slipping on draft day or getting cut. Second, you have the opportunity to raise your stock, and that can pay off big time. If you can go from #25 now to #10 next year you will more than double your yearly salary every year of your rookie contract. Suddenly waiting another year could make significant economic sense.

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While none of the withdrawals were players that the Blazers presumably were scouting to pick at #11, they could have an impact both in the short and long term. If the Blazers had been entertaining trading down, the player pool below #11 has now been weakened. On the other hand, the value of pick #11 may have gone up. If you are the Orlando Magic picking at #25, you might have had your eye one of the players who have withdrawn, and you might not like the remaining options. Maybe that gives you an incentive to try to trade up, making the picks above them more valuable.

Another dynamic might play out in the years to come. With so many quality players staying out of the draft, we might get some stronger drafts in the future. The number of players declaring for the draft won’t continue to go down forever; sooner or later players delaying the draft will start coming out and the numbers will start rebounding. If players are staying in college longer, they are more developed and mature, closer perhaps to the NBA player they are destined to become. The first-round pick in 2029 and pick swaps in 2028 and 2030 acquired from the Bucks in the Damian Lillard trade might yield players who are ready to contribute right away, hopefully at a time when some of the current Blazers are at the height of their powers.

It’s all part of the calculations the Blazers front office is making right now. It’s not just about who the best player might be to take at #11, but also the value in potentially trading that pick, especially if such a deal could add draft assets for a future, potentially deeper draft.

More from blazersedge.com:

Cooper Flagg’s Stunning Duke NIL Earnings Revealed originally appeared on Athlon Sports.

During his lone season with the Duke Blue Devils, former No. 1 overall recruit Cooper Flagg lived up to the billing as the next great American prospect.

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Although he and the Blue Devils fell in the Final Four to eventual runner-up Houston Cougars, Flagg led Duke in all five major statistical categories en route to a 35-4 record. In addition to being named ACC Player of the Year, Flagg also became the ninth Duke player to be named Naismith Men’s College Player of the Year.

Aside from prospering on the court, many fans likely assumed that Flagg was compensated quite well off of it, thanks to his Name, Image and Likeness earning potential. Although it’s not always an exact number, his NIL Valuation according to On3 was a staggering $4.8 million. A mark that only trailed Texas quarterback and nephew of Peyton Manning, Arch Manning.

However, as revealed during an interview with Bob Costas by insider and author Howard Bryant, Flagg’s earnings were significantly higher than the estimated numbers.

After initially asking Costas how much money he thought Flagg brought in during his lone season in Durham, Bryant answered his own question with a jaw-dropping figure. As a result of Flagg inking monster deals with New Balance and Fanatics, he was bringing in at least $28 million on the year.

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“He had a $13 million deal with New Balance and then $15 million with Fanatics,” Bryant said.

A staggering mark, considering an April report revealed that at least eight teams in college basketball will spend over $10 million on their entire roster for next season.

While around $30 million is chump change by any means, Flagg’s earnings will more than double following next month’s NBA Draft. Flagg has been projected to be the top pick for over a year, and now that the Dallas Mavericks have the pick, the safest assumption in the world is that he will be heading to the Lone Star State. According to Spotrac, the No. 1 pick is set to sign a four-year deal worth nearly $63 million.

Turns out being a generational basketball prospect pays quite well, who knew?

Related: Cooper Flagg Makes Big Career Move Before NBA Draft

This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on May 31, 2025, where it first appeared.

By Jim Fenton

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. — Peter Mazzaferro had a number of different addresses after graduating from Suffield Academy in Connecticut.

He spent four years at Centre College in Danville, Ky., graduating in 1954, and pursued a Master’s degree at Springfield College in Massachusetts.

Mazzaferro was then drafted into the U.S. Army and was stationed in Texas and Virginia, and he was also a teacher and coach in Philmont, N.Y.

He was a college coach at Waynesburg University and Geneva College in Pennsylvania and also Curry College in Milton, Mass.

After all those stops, Mazzaferro found a permanent home when he was hired as an assistant football coach at the former Bridgewater State College in 1966 by head coach Ed Swenson.

At the age of 36, Mazzaferro landed in a spot where he would settle in, becoming the long-time head coach and an associate professor in the Department of Physical Education.

Mazzaferro was the Bears’ head coach from 1968 until 2004, compiling a 195-137-7 record.

Coach Mazzaferro died on Friday, May 30 at the age of 94.

After his 34-year teaching and 36-year coaching career ended, Mazzaferro could be found at the Bridgewater State football, basketball and baseball games, following the athletics program closely while in his 90s.

The school meant a lot to Mazzaferro, who was born in Torrington, Conn., on June 24, 1930.

“It’s been my whole life, really,” Mazzaferro once said. “I dedicated my life to Bridgewater State football.”

Mazzaferro was in need of a job in 1966, and Swenson, who he had met at a coaching clinic in the Catskills, was there to offer one.

After two seasons on Swenson’s staff, Mazzaferro was elevated to the head job when Swenson, also the director of athletics, stepped down.

The Bears won six New England Football Conference titles and made it to the NCAA Division 3 tournament in 1999 and 2000 under Mazzaferro. He also guided them to ECAC postseason games in 1989 and 1992.

Mazzaferro was the New England Football Writers Divisions 2-3 Coach of the Year in 1989 and 1999. BSU went 34-6-1 from 1989-92, putting together a 10-0 regular season on the way to the NCAAs.

He received the George C. Carens Award in 1996 for outstanding contributions to college football in New England and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the All-American Football Foundation.

“I had met Ed Swenson at a coaching clinic up at the Catskills,” recalled Mazzaferro. “One time when I was coaching at Waynesburg (University in Pennsylvania), he asked me to play them.

I looked at the football guide and Bridgewater wasn’t even listed. I didn’t know much about it.

“I came here and they gave me faculty ranking and a decent salary, so I never thought of leaving.

“If I had never met Ed Swenson back then, “I guess I never would have known about Bridgewater State.”

Mazzaferro was a defensive end on the Centre College football team in the 1950s and ran the quarter-mile in track in addition to playing basketball. Mazzaferro was inducted into Centre’s Athletics Hall of Fame in 2008.

Whenever Mazzaferro was discussing his alma mater, he was sure to note that Centre pulled off one of the greatest college football upsets in 1921, knocking off Harvard.

Mazzaferro was inducted into the Bridgewater State University Athletics Hall of Fame in 1994.

“We refer to him as ‘Papa Bear,'” Rich Florence, who played for Mazzaferro from 1971-74 and was an assistant coach from 1977-93, once said. “He’s touched and he’s  impacted the lives of so many players. It’s almost tough to count them. He’s just so well respected.”

Joe Verria, the current head coach at BSU, also played for Mazzaferro from 1976-79 and became one of his assistants in 1988.

“He’s someone who has dedicated his life to BSU football, BSU athletics,” Verria once said. “When I came  here my freshman year, he was my head coach and he’s the one who gave me the opportunity to coach college football and I’ve been here ever since.”

Bridgewater State honored Mazzaferro on Sept. 8, 2023 when it named the Bears’ home field the Peter Mazzaferro Field.

“The reason is really clear,” said BSU President Fred Clark at the time. “He’s done so much for us, 36 years as not  just a coach but a physical education faculty member, and in both areas he excelled.

“It’s the way he coached that influenced my enthusiasm. He focused on fair play, strong character  and understood the importance of not just creating great students but creating great people.

“We remember where we’ve come from and as we’re moving forward into the future, we remember that we  stand on the shoulders of truly great people that created the foundation on which we’ve built.

“Peter Mazzaferro is one of those folks who created the remarkable foundation here at Bridgewater State.”

Mazzaferro wrote a book, “Dropkick Me Through the Goalposts,” detailing his life and coaching career. He told the story of teaching and coaching at Ockawamick Central School near Albany, N.Y., where one of the students was Oliver North, the Marine involved in the Iran-Contra scandal.

He was also an expert on western Pennsylvania because of his time at Waynesburg and Geneva and rattled off the names of outstanding football talent from the area like Joe Montana, Joe Namath, Mike Ditka, Dan Marino and Johnny Unitas.

Mazzaferro also worked at camps operated by Clair Bee, the famous basketball coach.

But for all of his stops along the way, none could top all of the time that he spent at Bridgewater State dating back to the mid-1960s.