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The next phase of the pre-draft process gets underway for the Utah Jazz this week.
Now that the NBA combine is over and the deadline has passed for players to decide if they want to remain in the draft or return to college, it’s time for teams to take another step toward draft night. That means gathering more info and going over new reports.
After the combine concluded, team officials and draft prospects remained in Chicago as team physicians and medical experts arrived. Prospects then went through checks and teams are able to order testing and imaging and get other medical history.
The results and information from all of that work starts to come back this week.
Some of that testing and evaluation can give players clearance to play if they had been dealing with injuries at the end of the collegiate season; it can give teams answers to other medical questions they have about prospects; and it can alert teams to medical issues that were unknown before this point in the process.
The other thing that starts happening this week — especially following medical clearance by the NBA — is players scheduling their in-person, pre-draft workouts with teams.
For the top prospects in the draft, their in-person workouts are usually not intense and are usually done without other players in the building.
Don’t expect AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson, Cam Boozer or Caleb Wilson to show up to any pre-draft workouts and go through rigorous playing or shooting. These players’ draft profiles are already so high, their agents aren’t going to want them to do anything that could potentially look bad before draft night. So, things are usually kept pretty simple — some shooting, maybe some drills that show athleticism.
The more important component of this for the team doing the drafting is having extended time with the prospect for conversations. It’s like a more in-depth interview. Team decision makers will have more questions for the prospects, will ask more specific and pointed things, will try to really get to know the kind of person the prospect is.
This might include dinner with the player and coaches and this is usually the final time the teams will talk with the player before draft night.
The Jazz, and all teams, already have a ton of data and film and intel on these players, and they’ll be reviewing all of that information over the next few weeks to narrow down their rankings ahead of draft night. The medical information and the in-person time with the players are the last pieces of the puzzle before the decisions are made.
New with the Jazz
From the archives
Extra points
- NBA passes anti-tanking changes to draft lottery (Deseret News)
- A look at Cam Boozer and Caleb Wilson as potential No. 2 picks (Deseret News)
- Jazz assistant Mike Williams in the running for Trail Blazers head coach job (Deseret News)
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- Terry Rozier facing new charges in gambling scandal, accused of taking bribe
- Knicks’ Mitchell Robinson, following surgery on pinky, plans to play in Finals
Up next
- NBA draft | first round | June 23 | 6 p.m. MDT
- NBA draft | second round | June 24 | 6 p.m. MDT