Villanova in the Pros: Wooga Poplar’s Summer League Competition

Wooga Poplar spent the 2024-25 season with Villanova after playing the first three years of his college career at Miami. After putting up 15.3 points and seven rebounds per game for the Wildcats, Poplar went undrafted in June.

He then signed an Exhibit 10 contract with the Chicago Bulls, gaining an invitation to the team’s summer league and training camp rosters.

Exhibit 10 contracts don’t carry any guarantees, so Poplar (who graduated from Philadelphia’s now-defunct Math, Civics and Sciences Charter School) will need to put on quite the showing in order to carve out a spot with the Bulls or their G-League affiliate. Luckily for him, his contract actually comes with more security than much of the rest of the summer league roster.

Wooga Poplar’s Competition

Of the eight guards invited to Chicago’s 14-man Summer League roster, just one other, Caleb Grill, has an Exhibit 10 contract. Another, Jahmir Young, split time between the Bulls and their G-League affiliate on a two-way deal. The other five are Javon Freeman-Liberty, a product of Big East foe DePaul, and Josh Primo, a former 12th overall pick who has appeared in just six NBA games across the last three seasons.

Other invites include William Hickey, who has bounced around between the professional and semipro circuits in Australia since 2019; Yuki Kawamura, who spent last season on a two-way deal with the Memphis Grizzlies, and Micah Parrish, who averaged 13.3 points per game for Ohio State last year.

Of those players, Young and Kawamura likely have a leg up on Poplar based on their seniority. Grill, who put up 13.7 points per game as a senior with the Missouri Tigers, likely sits on an even footing as the fellow owner of an Exhibit 10 contract, while Primo might receive an extended look because of his as-yet unrecognized draft pedigree.

Poplar will face an uphill battle in his bid for a G-League roster spot, but he appears to have a degree of priority over some of his competition based on the upgraded level of his contract.

For a related story, here’s the competition fellow 2024-25 Villanova star Eric Dixon will face in the Summer League.