Do NBA Draft Workouts Matter? ESPN's Chad Ford Says Yes ... And No

the workouts wouldn’t mean much as far as raising a player up after seeing them in game action over a long period of time. That is obviously more important. Where the workouts would be a factor for me is to drop players down. If someone is clearly overmatched physically, or there’s big red flags that show up in one area or another, that’s how workouts would be important.

guys like Brooks, Vuvecic and Thompson all played a lot of years, yea, but its was for crappy teams that really for all 3 weren’t exactly their fault. Plus the coach may not be competent enough to have them in the right position.

It does happen a lot tho. Paul George was one last year and from what I’ve seen he’s got a lot of promise, so that was a good thing. 38 teams had no clue about Landry Fields last year, and I don’t think anyone wouldn’t have him as a top 20 pick after what he did last year. The Knicks had said they felt he was a top 20 pick after working him out.

You gotta look at their production too. If a dude doesn’t do anything in college then blows up the workout…yea, then him moving up 20 spots is stupid. But if he produces a ton and then in workouts shows you a bunch of stuff: athleticism, leadership, testicles, all a that sort of stuff…then there’s nothing wrong with him moving up.

The workouts get you a closer look. Many times when a guy plays out west, a lot of teams don’t have a good look at them. Its really not a surprise a kid from Washington State U is moving up, and even USC cuz I’m sure a lot of teams didn’t scout them as hard given all the violations that school has had. And Providence is probably the last Big East school teams will look at close enough to find a 1st rounder.

So all in all, Chad Ford is just abusing his ESPN reporter ‘license’ again.

If NBA teams have scouts that evaluate talent throughout the year, there shouldn’t be any “dramatic” surprises in a team’s evaluation of the players they bring in. The workouts are a good way for teams to confirm or reject the beliefs they had about a player prior to the workout.

The workouts also help teams know which players are taking their ascent to the next level seriously. If a player is in shape and willing to be coached/corrected, teams are more inclined to draft that player. Conversely, if a player is out of shape and seemingly disinterred in receiving instruction, a team may decided to look elsewhere.

There are too many pitfalls. The workouts are skewed to make the players look good. Psychologically, the workouts might cause you to doubt things you were secure about after reviewing hours of actual game tape, because that’s how people are wired. A team might walk away feeling over validated about a player they liked at a much lower point in the draft and gain an inflated sense of his overall value, reach for that guy, and then expect way too much of him.

I think, as an executive, I’d prefer an NFL style interview process to an actual workout, so I’d know what kind of person I’m about to give millions of dollars to.

There are some guys that even with plenty of scouting you’re not quite sue about. Enes Kanter, for example. He took a year off and has minimal film. So you can learn a lot about his work ethic and how he stands up against some of the US big guys. Or someone from a really small school that hasn’t faced much competition at all.

Lately nobody has been talking about them, or commenting on them,

Keep ‘em coming Dan. I try to comment when I can, but I guarantee you I read everything you write. I’m too lazy to look up this stuff myself, and it’s interesting to see who is looking at who.

to us as fans, but GMs should not be drafting ex. Jimmer over Kemba if they have had Kemba ahead the last six months and then if/when Jimmer drains a couple of jumpers on Kemba, suddenly change their thinking. I agree with Ford that second round picks (who generally not not as intensely scouted) can and will improve their standing in workouts, but nobody should be jumping 20 spots in the first round based on a staged workout.
Then again, the NFL is at fault with this at the Combine, so you never know.