Most of the NBA Draft focus right now is on the handful of guys at the top of the draft — Deandre Ayton, Marvin Bagley III, Luka Doncic, and others.
However, at any given time up to 20 percent of the guys in the league were undrafted — guys such as Robert Covington, Jeremy Lin, Seth Curry, Aron Baynes, Wes Mathews, and Kent Bazemore, all went undrafted and had to find another route to the NBA.
How do those guys get the attention of scouts and GMs and get their chance? Jake Kelfer with the Professional Basketball Combine joins me to talk about his event and that path — a May combine-style couple of days where teams can watch players not at the NBA Combine — and how those players can get a foot in the door. Last year, that included Antonio Blakeney, who got a two-way contract with the Bulls, Charles Cooke (who got a two-way contract with the Pelicans) and others who went on to play in the G-League and overseas. The goal at the combine is to play well enough to get invited to work out for teams (from there it’s usually a Summer League invite and maybe the chance to attend a team’s training camp, where they can earn a spot).
This year, the list of players includes LiAngelo Ball, who will be coming to the PBC at the IMG Academy in Florida trying to show to scouts exactly what he can do.
As always, you can check out the podcast below, listen and subscribe via iTunes at ApplePodcasts.com/PBTonNBC, subscribe via the fantastic Stitcher app, check us out on Google play, or check out the NBC Sports Podcast homepage and archive at Art19.
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