Aaron Holiday and Thomas Welsh declare for NBA draft, won’t hire agents

Aaron Holiday (left) and Thomas Welsh will both declare for the NBA draft, but neither will hire an agent. (AP photo/Mark Humphrey)

UCLA sophomore Aaron Holiday and junior Thomas Welsh will declare for the NBA draft, a UCLA spokesperson confirmed on Monday. Neither will hire agents, meaning they have until May 24 to withdraw their names in order to return to school.

Neither player is projected to be selected in the draft. ESPN rates Holiday the No. 80 NBA prospect and Welsh No. 119. NBADraft.net ranks Holiday and Welsh 61st and 85th, respectively.

They may be declaring primarily to workout for NBA teams and gather information about how best to prepare for the league when they do leave school for good. UCLA coach Steve Alford’s statement about their decision indicated as much.

“Both Thomas and Aaron are doing their due diligence in getting feedback from the NBA to determine what’s in the best interest for their basketball futures,” Alford said. “Each of these young men come from strong families with great support networks and I want them to know that we will fully support their decisions, whichever way they go.”

There is much riding on the eventual decisions of Holiday and Welsh for a UCLA team already losing freshmen Lonzo Ball and TJ Leaf to the NBA along with seniors Bryce Alford and Isaac Hamilton. Freshman Ike Anigbogu has also declared for the NBA draft without hiring an agent.

Were none of them to come back, UCLA would lose seven of the eight players in its regular rotation during a 31-5 season that ended in the Sweet 16. Junior Gyorgy Golomon, who averaged 3.7 points and 2.4 rebounds in 11.3 minutes per game would be the only returning player with experience from last season. He would join sophomores Prince Ali and Alex Olesinski, who both redshirted this season due to injuries.

Holiday averaged 12.3 points and 4.4 assists as UCLA’s sixth man. Welsh averaged 10.7 points and a team-leading 8.7 rebounds as the starting center. Without them, UCLA will be relying heavily on a six-man recruiting class ranked No. 2 in the country.