Daily Press

With its draft date unknown, the NBA still presses on with its player evaluation process

- By Tim Reynolds Associated Press

There are many unknowns about the NBA draft, though some elements are proceeding as usual and one deadline is looming this week.

The NBA — as usual — has been sending evaluation­s to players who are considerin­g leaving college early and entering the draft and will continue doing so to all underclass­men who ask for them before Thursday’s deadline. That task falls to the league’s Undergradu­ate Advisory Committee.

“This is a process that’s important, maybe more important this year than ever,” said Kiki VanDeWeghe, the NBA’s Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations and UAC committee chair. “We’re trying to get the athletes and the schools as much informatio­n as we possibly can.”

Because of the coronaviru­s pandemic that has shut down the sports world, nobody knows when the draft will be held, who will have the No. 1 overall pick or how that will be decided. Nobody even knows when or if the draft combine, which is scheduled for mid-May and technicall­y has not yet been changed, will take place.

When underclass­men ask, the NBA sends evaluation­s with a percentage of likelihood that they will fall into one of five draft-night categories — lottery (picks 1-14), first-round non-lottery (picks 15-30), the first half of the second round (31-45), the second half of the second round (46-60), and undrafted.

It’s not an exact science, but the league has good success with it: Since 2016, based on its own evaluation and feedback that the 30 NBA teams share as part of the process, the league has told 66 candidates that they are first-round material and 49 others that they wouldn’t be drafted. It hit on 89% of those first-round projection­s and 96% of the undrafted projection­s.

“It is unpreceden­ted times and difficult times for everybody, and we try to do our best to make that easier for student-athletes as far as navigating that process and understand­ing that process,” VanDeWeghe said.

The UAC will continue sending evaluation­s through April 26, the league’s deadline for players to officially decide if they will enter the draft pool.

So far, about 200 college early-entry and internatio­nal players have tested the waters. Most will withdraw. The league is taking the additional step this year of offering mental-health resources under the advice of Dr. Kensa Gunter and Dr. Vic Schwartz.

The evaluation-request and early-entry deadlines aren’t changing, as of now anyway, VanDeWeghe said. Everything else is on a very fluid timetable.

“The in-person workouts and the combine and all of that type of stuff looks like it will be significan­tly impacted by COVID-19, but it doesn’t mean that the work stops,” Los Angeles Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka said. “Our scouts are doing tons of film study. I’m doing tons of synergy, watching, studying guys overseas, studying guys here, and that work has to continue.”

The draft was supposed to be June 25. That now seems highly unlikely, and plenty of teams have asked the NBA for a delay that looks inevitable.

Not having NCAA tournament games is not hurting the process, VanDeWeghe said, noting that the players who are most likely to come out early — especially the likely lottery and first-round picks — have been wellknown to teams and scouts for many years.

“We’ll get through this,” VanDeWeghe said. “We’ll get through it together and hopefully come out the other side a little better, a little stronger, a little wiser.”

 ?? MARK HUMPHREY/ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE ?? Georgia guard Anthony Edwards, right, drives against Mississipp­i's Breein Tyree in March. Edwards knows he's a projected high pick, but many other players need feedback the Undergradu­ate Advisory Committee provides.
MARK HUMPHREY/ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE Georgia guard Anthony Edwards, right, drives against Mississipp­i's Breein Tyree in March. Edwards knows he's a projected high pick, but many other players need feedback the Undergradu­ate Advisory Committee provides.

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