Izaiah Brockington received interest from 13 NBA teams before Thursday’s 2022 NBA Draft.

The former Iowa State scoring threat declared his intent to enter the NBA Draft on March 28, three days after Iowa State fell to Miami in the Sweet Sixteen.

Since then, Brockington has participated in workouts for, or otherwise received interest from, “basically two-thirds of the league,” said Spencer Davies of Basketballnews.com. 

Brockington averaged 16.9 points per game for Iowa State in 2021-22 and was a key factor in the team’s historic 20-win one-season turnaround. Brockington joined Iowa State as a transfer from Penn State in May 2021. He played his freshman season at St. Bonaventure in New York. 

“He’s definitely generating interest even though he’s not on a lot of big boards,” Davies said.

Davies is a senior writer and editor for Basketballnews.com and covers the NBA. He’s spoken to sources around Brockington and told the Iowa State Daily the Raptors, Suns, Clippers, Pelicans, Lakers, Pacers, Kings, Jazz and five other teams have in some way expressed interest in Brockington. 

Brockington was named Big 12 Newcomer of the Year in 2022 and decided to forego one remaining year of eligibility to pursue the NBA Draft. 

“It’s really about the way he’s intense about the game and is able to impact it,” Davies said. “Just when he’s on the floor, he’s got a lot of energy.”

An impactful figure for Iowa State on the defensive end, Brockington was often tasked with guarding the opposing team’s biggest perimeter threat.

On Dec. 9, 2021, Brockington and the Iowa State defense held Iowa’s Keagan Murray to nine points. Murray, who led the nation in scoring at the time, was scoreless in the first half. Murray is also expected to be a top-ten pick in Thursday’s draft. 

“It was quite heroic,” Iowa State head coach T.J. Otzelberger said about Brockington after the team’s rivalry win in December.

Brockington was not invited to the May 18-20 NBA Combine in Chicago or the G-League Elite camp but still came to Chicago for another aspect of NBA Combine week.

The NBA Combine field is made up of the top-60 draft prospects voted on by NBA teams; the next 40 are invited to the G-League Elite Camp.

However, agencies with multiple draft hopefuls hold after-hour workouts outside the event to allow another chance to showcase their clients’ skills to NBA decision-makers. 

Brockington is represented by Tandem Sports + Entertainment. He and other prospects, such as Baylor’s Jeremy Sochan, completed individual workouts with a skills trainer at the Tandem Sports pro day. 

“I was surprised not to see Izaiah at the G-League Elite Camp,” Jon Chepkevich, founder of Rookie Scale, said. “He seemed like a pretty good candidate to do well in that event.”

Rookie Scale is an organization that scouts NBA prospects. Formerly, Chepkevich was the director of scouting and draft research for the Professional Basketball Combine, an up-start secondary combine for mid-level prospects.

Chepkevich was in the audience at the Tandem Sports pro day and noted that the event was impressive overall. The way trainers mapped drills with high energy made the Tandem Sports event one of the best of combine week, Chepkevich said.

“You could tell it meant a lot [to Brockington] to seize that moment,” Chepkevich said. 

Up close in-person, Chepkevich said, Brockington’s listed size of 6 feet 4 inches and 196 pounds is perfect for an NBA two-guard. Because of the defense and rebounding ability Brockington showed in just one year at Iowa State, “he’s definitely on the radar for teams.”

Rookie Scale and Chepkevich have Brockington in the top 100 of the 2022 NBA Draft field. Typically, this means hearing his name called in the second round of Thursday’s draft is a possibility. 

“Realistically, for him, my guess would be he’ll get some consideration for a two-way contract,” Chepkevich said. “If not, he would easily be able to get an exhibit 10 contract.”

Otherwise known as a training camp deal, an exhibit 10 contract would allow Brockington to attend an NBA training camp. The franchise would have the ability to convert Brockington into a two-way player before the season begins.

The 2022 NBA Draft will take place at 7 p.m. Thursday in Brooklyn, New York, and can be viewed live on ESPN.