A trend is developing in which top NBA prospects are eschewing the NBA Draft Combine ahead of the draft itself. This year, Malik Monk, Lonzo Ball and five other potential lottery picks are foregoing the annual meat market.
Sources: Josh Jackson, Jayson Tatum, Lauri Markkanen, Jonathan Isaac, Dennis Smith, Malik Monk, along with Ball, skipping NBA Draft Combine.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) May 3, 2017
While these top prospects are staying away from the workouts, other players are getting a chance to show what they’re made of in front of all 30 NBA teams.
Sources: VJ Beachem, Nigel Hayes, Peter Jok, Derrick Walton and Chris Boucher are alternate invites who made official NBA Combine list.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) May 3, 2017
It’s understandable why players who are already pretty much guaranteed top draft spots would avoid any instance in which they could potentially get knocked off their perch by a freak accident. Plus, it’s not like the teams picking near the top of the draft won’t have each of the players abstaining from the combine in for individual workouts before the draft in late June.
Still, it is a bit alarming that seven of the top 10 prospects entering the draft won’t be at the combine. In the recent past, we’ve seen top players skip out, but never on this large scale. Chances are, it won’t make much of an impact overall, however. We saw the likes of Ben Simmons and Brandon Ingram (2016), Karl-Anthony Towns and Jahlil Okafor (2015) as well as Andrew Wiggins and Jabari Parker (2014) all skip this annual event.
It certainly didn’t hurt their draft stock, as all six players were top-three picks.