NBA Draft Combine to have 5-on-5 in 2015

NBA Draft Combines dropped the entertaining five-on-five workouts recently, but the event is making a comeback in 2015.

The NBA Draft combine is not at the level of the NFL combine. It’s mainly a chance for teams to get player diagnostics and conduct interviews with potential draftees. Now, there will be a little more added to it.

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The combine once included 5-on-5 competition, but fearing injury, top prospects stopped participating. In an effort to get those premier players back, the NBA eliminated 5-on-5.

According to Chad Ford of ESPN.com, the combine had 5 on 5 before 2009, but since then the NBA has had the 60 or so prospects invited to the combine run through various shooting and ball handling drills with some minor simulated 3-on-2 action. General managers and scouts have complained about this since.

According to Ford, in 2012 11 key prospects refused to participate in combine drills: Anthony Davis,Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Bradley Beal,Thomas Robinson, Andre Drummond,Harrison Barnes, Dion Waiters, Jared Sullinger, Jeremy Lamb, Austin Riversand Arnett Moultrie refused to participate in the drills.

In 2013: Ben McLemore, Otto Porter Jr., Trey Burke, Victor Oladipo, C.J. McCollum, Michael Carter-Williams, Cody Zeller, Dennis Schroder and Mason Plumlee.

Andrew Wiggins, Jabari Parker and Joel Embiid decided to skip the combine altogether in 2014. Dante Exum, Julius Randle, Aaron Gordon, Marcus Smart and Doug McDermott didn’t participate in drills.

Clearly, it’s a problem when the top players aren’t participating. In fear that the problem will continue to grow, the NBA will reinstate the 5 on 5 portion of the combine, giving players a better experience and scouts a better knowledge of player potential.

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