The 2017 NBA Draft Combine tipped off Tuesday, May 9 and runs through Sunday May 14.
Yesterday the 2017 NBA Draft Combine began what will be six days of action featuring several prospects who’ll enter this year’s draft. Draft Express offers a full list of invitees and participants, including which particular events they’ll participate in.
The NBA Draft Combine is an opportunity for prospects to showcase their skills and impress General Managers. Potential prospects will endure testing via strength and agility drills, play in five-on-five games and undergo interviews. In recent years the trend has been for the very top prospects to forego the Combine electing to do individual one-on-one visits with teams instead. In some cases the top prospects will attend solely to meet and interview with Franchises upper management. This latter event occurs out of convenience since all 30 teams will already be on site in Chicago.
College or overseas prospects attending the camp will showcase skills they may not have been afforded with their teams. For a select few athletes the combine can lead to a sudden up tick in their stock (think Zach LaVine). Conversely, a poor performance at the combine (think Caris LeVert) can result in a player’s stock suddenly plummeting. Although athletes can raise eyebrows with strong testing and performances, a poor showing, while not ideal won’t necessarily translate to the athlete’s ceiling or coach-ability.
Tuesday and Wednesday features testing while Thursday and Friday offer five-on-five games.
As per Steve Silverman of Bleacher Report:
"The most competitive events at the combine are scheduled for Thursday and Friday, and they will be televised by ESPN2. The event can also be live-streamed on WatchESPN and NBA.com."
Draft Lottery Approaches:
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Next week on Tuesday May 16 the NBA Draft Lottery will occur. And, with it attention surrounding the 2017 NBA Draft (June 22) will begin to build. This season the Lottery offers several intriguing questions. The Lakers brass in particular should be extremely anxious, as a lottery ball registering anything above the number 3 on it would mean they’ll lose their pick to the Sixers.
All teams will send a representative which could be a current or former player, coach, upper management or for lack of a better term a good luck charm. For example, Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert sent his son the year the Cavs ended up an unexpected number1 pick for the second consecutive season. If I had to put money on the Lakers rep Magic Johnson seems to be a logical candidate.