Former Tennessee point guard Kennedy Chandler is one of 76 players that earned an invite to the 2022 NBA Combine on Tuesday night.
This year’s combine takes place from May 16-22 in Chicago.
Chandler — the third one-and-done of the Rick Barnes era — is projected to be a middle to late first round pick after his strong freshman season saw him earn Second Team All-SEC honors and the SEC Tournament’s Most Valuable Player.
The freshman point guard averaged 13.9 points, 4.7 assists and 3.2 rebounds while starting every game for Tennessee’s 27-8 Round of 32 team. The Memphis native proved to be an elite defender too, recording 2.2 steals and showing major growth over the course of the season.
The Memphis native declared for the NBA Draft last month, hiring agent Ryan Davis and forgoing any future NCAA eligibility.
While Chandler is the only Tennessee player that forewent his eligibility, he is not the only Vol that declared for the 2022 NBA Draft.
Both Santiago Vescovi and Josiah-Jordan James entered the 2022 NBA Draft, deciding to test the waters while keeping their final two seasons of college eligibility.
This path is a popular one with a number of Tennessee players choosing it in recent years. Yves Pons (2020 NBA Draft) and Admiral Schofield (2018 NBA Draft) took this path before returning to Knoxville for their senior seasons while Jordan Bone (2019 NBA Draft) took this path and stayed in the draft, forgoing his final year of eligibility.
May 31 is the deadline for college players in the NBA Draft to remove their name and retain collegiate eligibility.
