That was the stage for last week’s NBA Draft Combine, and it helped that some changes mandated in the new collective bargaining agreement made it a more inclusive affair. No longer can elite prospects sit out the interviews or (more vexingly) play games with sending individual teams their medical reports; even the top Europeans who couldn’t come because their teams are still in-season had to submit to medical. Helpfully for the league (and those who cover it), the changes also included prospects participating in media sessions, allowing the future faces of the league to get some additional exposure ahead of draft day.
As ever, we still didn’t get all the best players on the court for five-on-five; basically, none of the players projected to go in the top-30 picks suited up for the two days of scrimmages, although the shooting drills and athletic testing portions were well attended.
Nonetheless, many of the league personnel in Chicago this past week agreed that the new CBA rules helped make the 2024 version a vast improvement on previous events. No, that may not make this class any better when we look back on it, but it’s a great omen for when we do this again a year from now with a loaded 2025 class led by Duke commit Cooper Flagg.
