Wendell Carter On This Year’s Unusually Risky Draft

As we’ve alluded to from time time, this year’s NBA Draft is going to be really difficult to predict or for teams to get right. Due to the pandemic, evaluations will be cursory and in many cases limited to video.

So while we usually make it a point not to link to older articles in this case former Blue Devil Wendell Carter’s comments are worth listening to. Here are his comments about the effects of the pandemic but the rest is well worth your time too:

“Obviously basketball stuff isn’t anywhere near the most important issue at this point, right in the middle of the coronavirus crisis, but what’s going on has meant that current draft prospects are in a tough situation that players like me didn’t have to deal with. No individual workouts? No combine? No predraft camps? No in-person meetings? Basically your game tape is going to have to be good enough. So if you’re someone who maybe didn’t put up huge numbers last season, but who kills it when it comes to measurables and workouts, this honestly might not be your year.“

One thought: for teams that have invested in extensive analytics systems, you’d think NBA teams are doing whatever they can to get a hold of that data. It’s probably gold right now.