Here’s a timeline of key dates for Maryland’s Melo Trimble’s 2017 NBA Draft decision

Melo Trimble ended his time with Maryland basketball on Wednesday by declaring for the NBA Draft and hiring an agent.

This is the first step on his journey to playing professionally, but it certainly isn’t the last. He’s the only Maryland player with a shot of getting drafted, so there’s going to be a whole lot of news coming out about Trimble in the coming months. Here’s a timeline of how things will go down so you can keep everything straight, which I’ve updated now that we know Trimble isn’t coming back.

April 23, 2017 (11:59 p.m.) — NBA early-entry candidate application deadline.

This is the date by which Trimble has to declare for the draft. It’s unlikely he waits until the buzzer to do this one. In fact, Trimble could announce literally any second. This step is a formality. If he doesn’t declare, which is extremely unlikely, the rest of this is moot. But assuming he does declare, he’ll move on to step two.

April 25, 2017 — NBA teams can begin conducting or attending workouts with early-entry players.

Trimble will get to see many teams when he goes to the combine, but this is when he’ll get to start. This is a minor step in the journey, but it’s a step nonetheless.

April 28, 2017 — Draft combine invitations (and player questionnaires) sent to invitees.

Trimble got an invite last year. So did Jake Layman, Diamond Stone and Robert Carter Jr. I can’t see why he wouldn’t get another invite this time around.

May 9-14, 2017 — NBA draft combine (Chicago).

This is the big event. The combine is where we’ll find out whether or not he can impress the scouts he failed to last year. Last year, Trimble received an overwhelming response from those scouts that he should return to school. These scouts already know his measurables, which have always been underwhelming, so he’ll have to play better in the scrimmage portion and do what he can to convince teams to take a flier on him.

May 24, 2017 — NCAA (post-combine) withdrawal deadline.

This will be when we finally find out whether or not he’ll be returning to Maryland. Last year, Trimble waited until late at night on the final date to announce his decision. If he gets positive reviews this year, we might not have to wait as long. If scouts still aren’t sweet on him, he could end up going right down to the wire again.

June 22, 2017 — NBA draft (New York).

This is the final step. He’ll hope to hear his name called, and will find out where he’ll start his professional career. Even if he goes undrafted, we’ll probably find out his destination shortly after. Trimble is talented enough to get a training camp invite somewhere at the absolute very least. Then his professional journey really gets started.

This article was updated after its initial publication on March 22.