Watching the Draft Combine

Watching the NBA draft combine on NBA TV you’ll hear a lot of talk about verticals, wingspans, reach and other metrics that are supposed to create a profile of a player and help teams weigh their options. I’m not sure exactly how much GMs read into these stats, but I can’t imagine it being much. These are statistics that should be used as a coarse filter for players, and little more than a cursory check. It’s kind of like when a child is born and you check their vital signs, see if they got 10 fingers and 10 toes etc. Sanity check for whether things are close to what’s being advertised.

I’d even argue that the results of the drills that are being performed in the combine are largely irrelevant beyond the