NBA Combine Stats (Height, weight, etc)

http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2015/05/14/celtics-making-rounds-nba-scouting-combine/ShLLYvhOT26kS6bjxoTLCI/story.html







CHICAGO — The Celtics have interviewed 13 prospects over the first two days of the NBA Draft Combine here, according to a league source.

On Wednesday, Boston’s staff met with Kentucky center Willie Cauley-Stein, Arkansas guard Bobby Portis, Washington center Robert Upshaw, Stanford forward Anthony Brown, Virginia guard Justin Anderson, Arizona forward Stanley Johnson, Kansas forward Kelly Oubre, Maryland guard Dez Wells, and Syracuse forward Chris McCullough.


Thursday’s schedule was lighter, as the on-court portion of the combine began. The Celtics met with Louisville guard Terry Rozier, Duke forward Justise Winslow, UNLV forward Christian Wood, and Duke guard Tyus Jones.

The league source said that on Friday, the Celtics were scheduled to meet with LSU forward Jordan Mickey, Kentucky forward Devin Booker, Notre Dame guard Pat Connaughton, UCLA forward Kevon Looney, and Texas forward Myles Turner.

Among the players who discussed the Celtics on Thursday, most spoke glowingly about coach Brad Stevens.

“He’s a younger coach in the NBA and has a great relationship with his players,” said Anderson, the former Virginia star. “Playing for him would be similar to playing for coach [Tony] Bennett as far as how genuine he seemed. He’s a genuine guy. He’s very straightforward. They have a young program, they’re coming up and they’re gonna be really good.”

Added Johnson, the former Arizona star: “He was just cool. He was always super cool, and I was always impressed with what he did at Butler.”

Each team is allowed to interview 18 players over three days this week. The teams submit a list of players they would like to talk to, and then the NBA assigns the final group. It can be an early way to get an idea of a franchise’s interest in a player, but it is also true that teams often focus on prospects they might not be able to bring to their cities for individual workouts.

The Celtics had a five-man delegation sitting front and center for Thursday’s five-on-five scrimmages here. Stevens was flanked by assistant general manager Mike Zarren, director of player personnel Austin Ainge, director of scouting Dave Lewin, and assistant coach Walter McCarty. President of basketball operations Danny Ainge was not in attendance because he did not feel well. Austin Ainge said his father was sending him frequent text messages while watching the combine on television.


Boatright looms large

At 5 feet 10 inches and 169 pounds, UConn guard Ryan Boatright is the shortest and second-lightest player at the Combine. His wingspan of 6 feet ½ inch is the shortest, too.

But Boatright is eager to prove that he can make it in the NBA despite his stature, and he is focused on becoming a more appealing prospect in some areas that he hopes he can control.

“I think if I can put on some weight, it’ll help me,” he said. “I’ve just got to eat right, man. I’ve got to eat the right foods. I have a very high metabolism, and my mother and father are petite. But I think once I get through this process of working out so much, I’m gonna be able to put on some weight.”

Boatright said he has received advice from a former teammate who knows a bit about the process as well as trying to make it as an undersized guard. Last season, the Huskies’ 6-1, 175-pound point guard Shabazz Napier was selected with the 24th pick of the draft.

“He just told me to continue to work hard,” Boatright said. “It’s a tiring process, mentally and physically, but it’s fun. I’ve just got to have a good attitude.”

Even though a full season has passed since UConn won the national title, Boatright is optimistic that memories of that run will resonate.

“Hopefully that’s still ringing on those teams’ minds and those general managers’ minds that I’m a winner and I can do anything in a basketball game,” he said.

Boatright played 25 minutes in yesterday’s first five-on-five scrimmage. He had 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting and added a pair of assists.


On the list

The NBA released a list of measurements from the players in attendance, everything from hand size to body fat percentage to wingspan. These figures are generally not valued quite as highly as they are during the NFL Scouting Combine, but they do provide potentially useful information. Here are some of the highs and lows:

Upshaw, one of the more intriguing prospects here in Chicago, had the longest (10 inches) and widest (11 inches) hands. He also had the longest standing reach at 9-5 and the longest wingspan at 7-5½.

Wisconsin forward Frank Kaminsky was the tallest player in shoes, at 7-¾. Upshaw and Cauley-Stein were the only other 7-footers, and, for that matter, the only players at least 6-10.

Guards Quinn Cook (Duke), T.J. McConnell (Arizona), and Boatright tied for the smallest hands at the combine, at 7½ inches. Arkansas guard Michael Qualls’s 4 percent body fat was the lowest, and Kentucky center Dakari Johnson’s 14.9 percent was the highest.



bob



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Adam Himmelsbach @AdamHimmelsbach · 17h 17 hours ago
R.J. Hunter on Celtics: "I like where they're moving. They've got young talent, they know how to play. Kind of like a young Spurs team."


Adam Himmelsbach @AdamHimmelsbach · 17h 17 hours ago
One note regarding Celtics combine interviews: They don't have as much of a need to interview guys they know will come to Boston for 1-on-1s
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Adam Himmelsbach @AdamHimmelsbach · 20h 20 hours ago
Rondae Hollis-Jefferson doesn't lack confidence. "I'm playing chess out there, the other guys are playing checkers" Has Celtics meeting soon


Adam Himmelsbach @AdamHimmelsbach · 21h 21 hours ago
Stanley Johnson interviewed with the Celtics.


Adam Himmelsbach @AdamHimmelsbach · 21h 21 hours ago
UNLV's Christian Wood said he interviewed with the Celtics.
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Adam Himmelsbach @AdamHimmelsbach · 22h 22 hours ago
Celtics 5 deep at center court at NBA Combine: Walter McCarty, Dave Lewin, Mike Zarren, Brad Stevens, Austin Ainge:




Adam Himmelsbach @AdamHimmelsbach · 16h 16 hours ago
Ha, Andrew Harrison on Brad Stevens, courtesy of my pal @KyleTucker_CJ: "He’s the exact opposite of Coach Cal. He’s real calm and stuff."


Adam Himmelsbach @AdamHimmelsbach · 18h 18 hours ago
I'm told Kentucky's Willie Cauley-Stein interviewed with the Celtics yesterday, and unsurprisingly made an impression as only Willie can.

MY NOTE: Maybe that ethereal statement "as only Willie can" might help some who are insiders but it doesn't seem like good reporting to me. Your job is to inform me, not just give me a wink and a nudge and say "know what I mean? heheheh".


bob


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Washington center Robert Upshaw

Interesting that Dakari wasn't on the list. Probably will be in Boston for a workout and they don't have any big questions about his character or love of basketball like Upshaw or Willie Cauley Stein.

Bob, I'm not an expert on WCS's personality, but I think he's a probably a great guy who loves basketball. I know he's a poet, and reads his poems in public on campus. So he's probably in that Lopez brother category of quirky, creative, and a free thinker. Probably what the reporter meant by "as only Willie can". But I don't know for sure.

Adam Himmelsbach @AdamHimmelsbach · 18h 18 hours ago
I'm told Kentucky's Willie Cauley-Stein interviewed with the Celtics yesterday, and unsurprisingly made an impression as only Willie can.

MY NOTE: Maybe that ethereal statement "as only Willie can" might help some who are insiders but it doesn't seem like good reporting to me. Your job is to inform me, not just give me a wink and a nudge and say "know what I mean? heheheh".


bob


maybe someone threw a piece of paper at a trash can and got up and blocked it..then wagged his finger and said...no, no,no...not around me.

Since this thread was originally about sizes and measurements...


http://www.draftexpress.com/article/NBA-Measurements-and-How-They-Hold-Up-Over-Time-4965/



NBA Measurements and How They Hold Up Over Time
by: Matt Kamalsky - Director of Operations
May 14, 2015



If you've been reading DraftExpress for the past few years, there's a good chance you've come across one of our measurements analyses from the Nike Skills Academies, the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament, the Treviso EuroCamp, or the NBA Draft Combine. Every year we pour another five to seven hundred observations from those events into our already massive database in an effort to maintain an archive of all official prospect measurements we can get our hands on. We also calculate positional averages based on draft position, to facilitate comparing the measurements and testing results of current prospects to those of established NBA players, before authoring articles playing off those norms and the breadth of historical comparisons we can make.

Opinions on the importance of measurements vary greatly, as they are just a small piece of the puzzle that determines whether a player will end up being successful. Measurements are still widely anticipated both by NBA Draft fans and talent evaluators because they present a completely objective way of comparing prospects, at least in theory.

To this point, the measurements we've been able to acquire cover two key groups of players: high school prospects and players going through the draft process. At the start of every NBA season we hear about players who have grown or gained weight. Sometimes those changes are obvious, while other times they aren't.

Either way, because the measurements players post later in their careers aren't published officially en masse, we have no way of gauging how the measurements we collect hold up over time. While we are at least exposed to the occasional internally kept measurements of current NBA players, we see almost no athletic testing results, since many of the tests administered at the NBA Combine literally only exist in the pre-draft process.

For the first time, we've received measurements and athletic testing data on current pros, via the NBA D-League Elite Mini Camp, which brought in BAM for the first time to take in the sixth annual edition of the event, providing a fairly unique opportunity to analyze how the data we had already collected on those players has held up over time.

Of the 40 players invited to the event, 22 had previous official measurement data, mostly from Portsmouth or the NBA Draft Combine. The below is a look at the differentials in the measurements and athletic testing results of each of the players we have two sets of data for. Green text indicates a gain, while red text indicates a drop from their previous data, and equal signs are included to show how infrequently measurements were the same from the player's first and second measurements.





Observations

1. The first thing that stands out about this group is the variety of positions and career histories represented, ranging from undrafted rookies to former lottery picks. Since there were 5-on-5 sessions played at the elite mini camp, this is to be expected as the organizers did a nice job balancing the invitee list.

2. The most obvious trend to pick up on in looking at this summary is the weight these prospects gained from first time they were measured to the second. Every player but two gained weight as a pro, with 13 of the 22 players gaining 9 pounds or more since their first measurement. The need for additional weight and strength to compete at the professional level isn't a myth, so this should come as no surprise. Virtually everyone gains weight after the age of 22 as their body matures and fills out, and players typically show up to the NBA pre-draft setting in the best shape of their career after working out for weeks or months with a dedicated trainer in hopes of maximizing their draft stock. The D-League on the other hand is a physical grind with three to four games played per week and difficult travel schedules, where balanced nutrition and healthy eating aren't always feasible options.

3. The other notable trend is the drop in athletic testing numbers on the whole. Some players saw more significant drops than others and on average players were only marginally slower in the shuffle and 3/4 court sprint than they were the first time they were tested. One could assume that this is due to the fact that some of the players have lost a half a step, but the more likely culprit is the fact that unlike the first time the players took these tests in the pre-draft process, none of them were actively training to perform in these tests. A lot of lip service is paid to the results of the NBA Combine's athletic testing, and while the tests do shed some light on the just how athletic these prospects are, the fact of the matter is that many of these players train specifically for each test during those two months and never attempt another lane agility drill the rest of their lives. There's an element of intrigue in seeing just how explosive some of the world's best athletes are on paper, but the possibility of drawing any significant conclusions from the agility tests and many of these player's leaping results is not always a realistic expectation.

4. One other interesting trend is the huge gains a few players enjoyed in their standing reaches. Considering those gains came with significant drops in the vertical leaps and no discernable change in their height or wingspan, it makes one wonder if they sand-bagged the standing reach test during the pre-draft process in order to improve their maximum vertical reach mark, since their reach creates the baseline for that test. Perhaps more attention needs to be paid to this element of the athletic testing?

5. Another point of interest is just how few players posted the same mark twice in terms of the height and wingspan measurements. Over the years our database has grown to the point where a change of a quarter or a half an inch can lead to a player falling into an entirely different group of comparisons on the margins of certain positions. It sometimes seems like every little bit matters when it comes to how players grade out size wise, and while 6'6 sounds better than 6'5.75, the fact of the matter is that these measurements aren't entirely consistent day to day let alone year to year and need to be taken with a grain of salt. Just like with every statistic, there is a huge amount of variance that goes into every test, to the point that we almost might be better off setting a margin of error into the output.


Player Observations

While these measurements were particularly interesting to us for comparison purposes, a number of players also turned in performances which we feel warrant mention.

-Taylor Griffin may be better known as Blake Griffin's brother, but he's put together a long career in the D-league since being drafted by the Suns and is a tremendous athlete in his own right. At 238 pounds and age 29, he registered a 35.5 inch max vertical jump. Ironically, that's the same mark his younger brother leapt at the 2009 NBA Draft Combine.

-Hasheem Thabeet didn't do vertical jump testing at the combine in 2009, electing not to, likely in fear of not testing well. While he got drafted 2nd overall regardless, we finally found out six years later what he might have done. He posted a 34 inch max vertical leap in Chicago, which allowed him to touch a mark 12'4 off the ground, the 3rd highest mark ever achieved in our database behind only D.J. Stephens and Shaquille O'Neal. Thabeet hasn't played in the NBA since his stint with Oklahoma City last season, but he averaged 4.5 blocks per-40 minutes for Grand Rapids in the D-League this year and clearly retains much of his athleticism at age 28.

-Jarvis Threatt was the only draft eligible player in attendance. His 43 inch max vertical sets the pace for the prospects at the 2015 NBA Draft Combine. Threatt is an explosive player at the point guard position who will certainly get looks in the 2nd round after a very strong season.

-Kadeem Batts earns mention here for being the only player to improve his marks from the pre-draft process across the board.



bob




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