Which prospects improved their 2019 NBA Draft stock the most at this week’s combine? Here are the six NCAA Basketball players currently rising up draft boards.
The 2019 NBA Draft Combine technically lasts until Sunday, but all the major happenings of the event have concluded following the end of scrimmages and athletic testing on Friday.
Though performances at the combine don’t make-or-break a prospect like it sometimes does in the NFL, prospects certainly have the opportunity to impress teams on their way into the heart of draft prep – team workouts.
The team interviews held at the combine are the most important aspect for some NBA teams, yet others really put an emphasis on the athletic testing and scrimmages, where they get a chance to see how some of their top targets perform against players of a similar talent level.
Most recently, we saw Kyle Kuzma turn heads in a major way prior to the 2017 draft with his play in the scrimmages at the combine. He had a solid but unspectacular career at Utah, yet turned himself into a first-round pick with his play at the combine. The Los Angeles Lakers gambled on him then and it paid off, as Kuzma is now one of their core players.
There’s obviously no guarantee that any of these players will emerge as steals or outperform their draft spot the way Kuzma has. However, these next six NCAA Basketball players have helped advance their stock, whether that be from undrafted to a potential second-round pick, a second-round pick to a now borderline first-round pick, or a late first-round pick to a potential lottery selection.