While we have no idea when we will see live professional sports again, the sports world continues to move on. The NFL has announced that their draft will take place without an audience in April, and it looks as though the NBA is trying to still to their schedule as well.
The NBA Draft is set for June 25th, which usually comes after weeks of evaluation, private workouts, and of course the combine. However, it looks like NBA leadership is preparing to make their selections without any further on-court evaluation at all.
Sources: Several NBA teams are preparing to make their selections for the 2020 NBA Draft based on Skype interviews and prior in-person scouting. Many are moving forward with the expectation of no combine, no workouts, and no in-person interviews.
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) March 21, 2020
According to Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports, teams are preparing to use “Skype interviews and prior in-person scouting” to complete their assessments. For Kentucky’s players, that means their body of work from the 2019-2020 regular season will be their resume heading into the NBA Draft.
Immanuel Quickley will not have the opportunity to raise his stock in private workouts. Ashton Hagans will not get to go to the combine to show how big of an asset his defensive skills could be at the next level. EJ Montgomery will have no further opportunity to convince a team to draft him on “potential.”
To be clear, I think Nick Richards and Tyrese Maxey will be just fine. These other guys need some help to secure their draft status. I know John Calipari will be an advocate for any of them that declare for the draft, but will that be enough to get Quickley a guaranteed contract? Will Cal be able to convince a team to take a chance on Hagans?
Or will this mean that the borderline guys are more likely to come back for another year? In this unprecedented set of circumstances, anything can happen. I tend to think the situation will have less of an impact on player decisions than some others believe it will. Unless something changes, the players have until May 29th to decide.