The NBA Draft Combine is happening in Chicago through Friday. Team personnel and most draft prospects (minus the elite) are all in town. Of course, we don’t know what teams have which picks yet (or if some teams even have picks), because the NBA Draft Lottery isn’t until next week.
The NBA offseason schedule is all wrong
Good morning. We have that and more in Thursday’s NBA newsletter.
Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports
This shows just how little the NBA’s offseason calendar makes sense.
The NBA Draft happens in late June, right after the end of the NBA Finals. The draft really shouldn’t occur before free agency, though: teams should be encouraged and liberated to use the draft not just as a craps table where they trawl for stars, but an opportunity to fill roster gaps. The problem is that teams don’t know what gaps their roster has until free agency and the trade market flows out!
This is not an original thought -- smart internet people suggest this every year -- but the order of the offseason tentpoles should obviously be: NBA Draft Lottery (within a couple weeks of the end of the regular season), NBA Draft Combine (mid-May is fine -- it retains the ability of kids to decide to return to school), the start of free agency (July 1 works), the draft (fourth Thursday in July), and Summer League (mid-August). Getting the lottery out of the way gives teams some clarity to work with. Knocking out the bulk of free agency before the draft makes the draft more utilitarian. Pushing Summer League to August creates a natural flow into training camp and gives teams an opportunity to make early roster decisions on veterans. (It would no longer conflict with FIBA qualifying, because FIBA is absurd.)
While we’re here, there are a couple things the NBA should do to ensure top prospects attend the Combine, even if they aren’t submitting to physical tests or competitive games. The first is make attendance a condition of eligibility for early entry. (This would need to be bargained. But NBA players already have mandated media appearances. Why shouldn’t the new guys?) These players, to remain on the early entry list, would have to be in Chicago and get measured, submit to some number of team interviews and some non-onerous amount of media availability. (Since European leagues are still in action, there should be an International Combine -- maybe Eurocamp works? -- in early June that doubles as a backstop for American prospects.)
To make the visit worth their while and paint an accurate picture of NBA life, the league should move a couple aspects of the Rookie Symposium to the Combine. Be real about how the NBA is different from college, high school, AAU, the D-League. Start talking to them about agents, managers, money, and lifestyle now.
This plan isn’t foolproof, but it makes more sense than the jumble we have now.
Okay, now to real basketball.
The Celtics played their ideal game: a stretched floor, threes galore, the high post and all that. Little surprise, then, that they beat the Wizards 123-101 to get one game away from the Eastern Conference Finals. Avery Bradley was unconscious in the first half. Boston fans gave Kelly Oubre the business. And now we have two teams facing elimination at home over the next two nights.
Thursday night: Spurs at Rockets, 8 p.m. ET, ESPN. San Antonio can advance to the Western Conference Finals with a win. Rockets win and we’re going to a Sunday afternoon Game 7. (On Mother’s Day. Thanks, NBA!)
The Wizards had a critical Game 5 with a shot to get to the brink of somewhere they haven’t been since Jimmy Carter. The Capitals had a big Game 7. And D.C. sports’ annual Biggest Night Ever ended like all the others do.
The jury is split on whether Kelly Olynyk is a dirty player. That’s ... about right.
Kevin Durant on why top prospects sit out the Draft Combine.
Lee Jenkins on a piece of the Warriors we don’t often discuss: their hustle.
Sam Amick goes behind the scenes to find out how the Rockets stay sane during the playoffs.
I wrote about how Manu Ginobili -- the proto-Harden -- outsmarted The Beard.
Good question: why don’t college women’s basketball fans follow their favorite players to the WNBA? Via REDEF.
Interesting and sad: Jeremy Lin recounts that racist taunts were worse in college than they’ve been in the NBA. I can imagine any number of factors. It’s deeply unfortunate that Lin or any player is exposed to that at any level, though.
Huge congratulations to The Starters for tallying the 50TH WEDGIE OF THE SEASON!
And finally: Dikembe Mutombo stars in Tall Man in Tiny Plane.
See More:
