San Diego State’s Lamont Butler will not enter transfer portal but remains in NBA Draft — for now

Lamont Butler did not definitively announce he’s returning to San Diego State for his senior season. He did, however, say the deadline to enter college basketball’s transfer portal will pass Thursday night without submitting his name.

Butler technically remains in the NBA Draft. The deadline to withdraw and retain college eligibility is not until May 31, and his father says it remains a “50-50” proposition.

But Thursday’s developments represent good news for the Aztecs. If the 6-foot-2 point guard returns to college, and there are strong arguments that he should, his only landing spot now is SDSU.

Lamont Butler Sr. said the family received more than 10 calls from representatives of other schools offering lucrative NIL payments if his son would transfer.

“The most was $1 million, a couple $500,000s, a couple $300,000s, a couple $175,000s,” Butler Sr. said. “At the end of the day, most people would jump at that. But I think the Butler family is built just a little differently. I thank God for that, I really do. My son, he wants to be an Aztec. He’s an Aztec for life. Lamont never wanted to go, he just wanted to make sure we were taken care of.

“All money is not good money. I learned that from my dad. Why take my son out of a situation that’s great for him? We really don’t know what’s on the other end. The grass is not always greener, we all know that. It sounds good, it looks good, but it may be AstroTurf, it may not be real grass.”

He said some local entities have reached out about NIL possibilities should Butler return to SDSU. That’s in addition to the MESA Foundation, the collective that distributes about $2,000 per month to scholarship men’s basketball players in exchange for participation in periodic community service events.

Butler has been in Las Vegas since the end of the season, shifting his spring semester classes online and working out daily at Impact Basketball — a training program populated by the NBA Draft prospects each spring. Butler will be there for eight weeks total.

He has had workouts with three NBA teams — the Memphis Grizzlies, Milwaukee Bucks and Utah Jazz — but was not among the 123 players invited to either pre-draft combine in Chicago. The G League combine begins Saturday with 45 players. The NBA combine starts Monday with 78 invitees plus the top performers from the G League event.

Workouts will resume the following week, and Butler is expected to stay in the draft through the end of the month in hopes of getting a few more. Impact Basketball also has a Pro Day on May 22 for NBA clubs to evaluate players training there.

In the past, not being invited to a pre-draft combine was a strong hint that players who still have college eligibility should use it, considering only 58 players will hear their names called in the two-round NBA Draft on June 22 (down from the usual 60 because Chicago and Philadelphia both forfeited second-round picks as punishment for tampering violations).

But expanded NBA rosters and the growth of two-way developmental contracts (where players split time between the big club and a G League affiliate) have clouded the decision, increasing pro options for undrafted free agents.

The flip side: The 2024 NBA Draft is projected to be one of the weakest in years, so why not wait for that?

“It depends on how much it is for a two-way contract,” Butler Sr. said. “We may entertain it. But if it’s not worth it, we might as well come back to school. It’s 50-50 right now. In the meantime, Lamont is just going to keep getting better. If (SDSU fans) thought he was good last year, they’re going to see an even better and more confident Lamont if he comes back. And they already know he has a clutch gene.”

Two other members of the roster with eligibility for 2023-24 are provisionally in the draft: Keshad Johnson and Jaedon LeDee.

Johnson entered the transfer portal as well and appears headed elsewhere. He has visited USC, Oklahoma, Arizona and Kentucky, although USC may no longer be a possibility after the Trojans landed 6-6 Washington State grad transfer DJ Rodman earlier this week.

LeDee currently isn’t in the portal, but the 8:59 p.m. PDT Thursday deadline doesn’t apply to him because he’ll get his undergraduate degree this weekend. Players already in the portal before it closes and grad transfers can still move schools through the summer.

Either way, LeDee has said several times he intends to return, entering the draft primarily to get NBA feedback on his game and become familiar with the process for next year. He also got a head start during the spring semester on courses toward a master’s degree in business while completing his undergraduate degree.

LeDee is one of seven players walking in SDSU commencement ceremonies Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The others: Johnson, Matt Bradley, Adam Seiko (grad school) and walk-ons Jared Barnett, Triston Broughton and Tyler Broughton. Nathan Mensah and Aguek Arop received their undergraduate degrees last year and spent the past season in grad school.