When the NBA announced in a memo to teams earlier this week that the 2020 draft lottery has been moved up by five days, the league also informed clubs that possible dates and formats for a 2020 combine are still being evaluated, writes Tim Bontemps of ESPN.
The combine typically takes place in May after the lottery, but holding such a big event in person this spring was impractical due to the coronavirus pandemic.
While it remains to be seen whether any sort of in-person combine can take place, the NBA told teams which 105 prospects received the most votes to be invited to such an event. If the league is able to move forward with a combine in some form, that number would likely be whittled down to about 70 players, says Bontemps.
Here’s more on the 2020 NBA draft:
- Jonathan Givony of ESPN (Twitter links) compares the list of 105 prospects in the NBA’s memo to ESPN’s big board of 2020’s top 100 prospects, noting that ESPN is higher on Houston guard Nate Hinton, while NBA teams seem to be higher on Czech guard Vit Krejci, who plays for Zaragoza in Spain.
- Missouri guard Xavier Pinson indicated in an Instagram video this week that he’ll return to school for at least one more year after testing the draft waters. As a sophomore in 2019/20, Pinson averaged 11.1 PPG, 2.8 APG, and 2.8 RPG in 31 games (24.0 MPG).
- UNC Greensboro guard Isaiah Miller will also remove his name from draft consideration, according to Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports (Twitter link). Miller declared for the draft following a junior year in which he averaged 17.8 PPG, 5.0 RPG, 3.1 APG, and 2.8 SPG in 32 games (28.4 MPG).
Trending toward bigs… the Nuggets started a game with all bigs (a stunt why?), and, also on a Givony tweet, “Also interesting to note that 10 of the 17 players on the NBA 105 and not on the ESPN 100 are big men. There are a LOT of bigs in this draft. But the NBA wants to see them.”
Bigs are a thing of the past, the Warriors proved this and the rest of the league is taking notice. Pretty soon what is going on with the Rockets will be copied by most of the other teams who want to succeed.
6-11, 6-10, 6-6, 6-7, 6-3 and fiesty physically is not small ball. Houston is but their fate has been delayed. For this camp coaches want their taller choices so far. The smallball trend has been stunted!— for now at least.
So did isaiah miller average 5.9 apg