In one of the many twists and turns the year 2020 has entailed, the NBA has now released the 2020 NBA Draft Combine schedule and announced that it partially will take place virtually.
As you know, the combine’s primary purpose is to give the NBA, as well as teams, as much information about each individual prospective NBA talent before draft night. Well this year will be no different with all of the high-tech measures the league is taking to bring an experience that is as close to normalcy as possible.
As you might imagine, the prospect/team interviews will take place virtually, between September 28 through October 16. In addition to that, each player will report to the nearest NBA team facility to complete an individual on-court program testing strength, agility, anthropometric measurements, shooting drills and a “Pro-Day” video. To be safe, medical testing and examinations will be done by NBA team doctors to prevent the spread of COVID-19. This testing will all take place in October.
One of the new features that the NBA will introduce in the 2020 version of the combine is something called HomeCourt. It’s an app centered around mobile basketball training, which uses advanced machine learning and computer vision to provide the necessary amount of analytics to evaluate each prospect’s shooting ability, as well as 1-on-1 court work with a coach or trainer. These videos are allowed to be up to 45 minutes long.
Lastly, this year the NBA is relying heavily on “Combine HQ,” an online tool they’ve used in the past. It’s basically an interactive database that provides NBA teams with scouting information gathered from the on-court testing players partake in next month. In this database, the NBA will be able to compare draft prospects to other current draft prospects, former combine participants as well as current NBA players. This is as thorough as a database as there is, which even includes detailed shot charts and other statistics.
So, it’s safe to say the NBA is doing its part to adapt to the ongoing pandemic and give teams the best chance to make the most informed decisions about the future of their franchises.
“NBA Draft Combine is an essential part of the pre-draft evaluation process,” said Byron Spruell, President, NBA League operations. “While the circumstances surrounding this combine are unique, we’re excited to creatively deliver a valuable experience for our teams, who have remained flexible through the process, and for prospective draftees who are just beginning their NBA journeys.”
The 2020 NBA Draft is presented by State Farm and is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, Nov. 18 on ESPN. This date remains subject to change.
