Clemson guard Chase Hunter declares for 2024 NBA Draft, maintains eligibility

Clemson point guard Chase Hunter, a starter on the 2024 Elite Eight team, has declared for the 2024 NBA Draft while also maintaining his collegiate eligibility.

If he was to come back, Hunter would need to apply for a waiver to gain a sixth year of eligibility. Yes, the longtime Tiger point guard has even exhausted his extra COVID year after five full seasons with the program, beginning in the fall of 2019.

However, since he only appeared in nine games during the 2019-20 season due to a foot injury, there’s reason to believe Hunter would be granted a medical waiver to play one more year if he did ultimately decide to come back.

Hunter tweeted out the following post with a thank you note to Clemson:

Thank You God 🙏🏽 pic.twitter.com/rauOloU9PR

— Chase Hunter (@chunt3r2) April 17, 2024

The veteran guard’s rise with Clemson was slow and rewarding. As mentioned, a gnarly foot ailment wiped out most of his rookie season. Even in year two, Hunter’s role was small, coming off the bench for 14 minutes a night to provide just less than three points per game. In 2022, his third season, Hunter played 22 minutes per game and was scoring roughly six points a night while starting half the team’s games.

He transitioned into a full-time starting role in year four, peaking as a scorer with 13.8 points per game, third on the team, for a squad that would have made the NCAA Tournament if not for a couple of wretched losses, but instead was narrowly left out.

In 2023-24, Hunter returned alongside PJ Hall and other upperclassmen as they and Brad Brownell vowed not to leave this season’s NCAA Tournament bid up to the committee. They were assuredly an at-large bid this time around and earned a 6-seed with Hunter again serving as the third-leading scorer (12.9 points per game) while also leading the group in assists.

Brownell and co. were greeted with handsome rewards in their return to March Madness this season, slaughtering New Mexico before upsetting 3-seed Baylor and 2-seed Arizona to make the Elite Eight.

Hall is likely gone and so is the other top Tiger player, Joe Girard. But if Hunter returns, Clemson could boast another top roster in the ACC. They’re already likely to get several role players back off the recent team and surely Brownell will hit the portal to fill out areas that he needs. After all, he did find a gem last summer in Girard.