While all fans of the Los Angeles Lakers have May 19 circled on their calendar as the date when everyone finds out if the team keeps their top-five protected draft pick, another important event takes place the week prior.
— Think You Know Everything About Kobe Bryant? Take The Ultimate Kobe Quiz! —
The 2015 NBA Draft Combine starts on May 12 and many of the top prospects will participate. Many others, however, will not as Jahlil Okafor, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Emmanuel Mudiay are all absent from the official list of combine participants via Pro Basketball Talk:
Top-10 international prospects Kristaps Porzingis and Mario Hezonja will also not attend the combine. Furthermore, nearly every other top player will participate only in the medical and physical tests and not the drills and scrimmages according to ESPN’s Chad Ford:
Here’s an updated list of physical testing only at NBA Draft Combine: D’Angelo Russell in. Karl-Anthony Towns out. pic.twitter.com/DBYlyVUcj2
— Chad Ford (@chadfordinsider) May 8, 2015
This is surely a disappointment to all of the scouts and front office executives who will be in attendance, but it also isn’t too surprising. Most top prospects tend to only work out in private sessions with teams as a bad showing against other competition could lead to their draft stock falling.
However, to see so many players who are projected late-first rounders to not participate in scrimmages is unfortunate as they are the kind of players who could move themselves higher in the draft with dominant performances. There will surely be some talented players participating in the scrimmages, but not the players most were looking forward to seeing.
[divide]MyNBADraft.com Draft Profiles: Karl-Anthony Towns
