Sometimes it can be difficult to trust a player's listed height or weight. The NBA Draft Combine fixes that.
Yesterday and today in Chicago, players have had their heights, weights and various other measurements taken down in order to give teams a fair assessment as to who they may be drafting.
Austin Rivers and Miles Plumlee both had their numbers taken down. According to a picture from Chad Ford's Twitter here are the measurements for Rivers/Plumlee:
- Height with no shoes: 6-foot-3.5/6-foot-10.5
- Height with shoes: 6-foot-5/6-foot-11.75
- Weight (lbs): 202.8/252.4
- Wingspan: 6-foot-7.25/7-foot-0.75
- Standing reach: 8-foot-1/8-foot-8.5
- Body fat (percent): 6.2/11.4
- Hand length (inches): 8.50/9.25
- Hand width (inches): 10.00/9.00
Additionally, according to Ford, Rivers chose not to participate in the 5-on-5 workouts at the combine, an event that increasingly only has participants from the second-round looking to improve their draft stock.
Miles Plumlee, however, has been dazzling in workouts, especially with his athleticism. According to Ford he registered a 41-inch vertical in his workout with the Minnesota Timberwolves and looking at draft data since 2001, the tallest player to record a leap that high was Jamario Moon in 2001 who was only 6-foot-7.75.
Ford writes for his ESPN Insider Draft Blog:
Duke's Miles Plumlee didn't wow anyone in four years at Duke, but he's generating significant buzz thanks to some great individual workouts and a strong performance in the Minnesota group workout last weekend.I see why NBA teams are intrigued. While Plumlee didn't show particularly well at Duke, he looks terrific in the drills and 5-on-5 settings I saw in Chicago. He's strong, physical and jumps out of the gym. Duke has been a very perimeter-oriented team the past few years and Plumlee rarely had plays called for him. He did his work on the boards, but little else that stood out.
Part of what is driving the interest is Plumlee's physical abilities. He measured with a 41-inch vertical in the Minnesota workouts.
I've been collecting pre-draft athletic testing numbers since 2001. The tallest player ever to hit 41 inches or higher was Jamario Moon (at 6-7 3/4). Plumlee measured 6-11 1/4 in Minnesota.
The highest a player 6-11 or taller has ever jumped in the testing is 38 1/2 inches bySteven Hunter back in 2001.
Clearly your vertical jump doesn't determine whether you'll be a great NBA player. But factor in Plumlee's size, NBA body and toughness on the boards, and a number of GMs are convinced he could be an athletic rebounder and shot blocker off the bench for them in the mold of Jeff Foster.
The NBA Draft will take place on June 28 in Newark, N.J.
Rivers is expected to be a first-round pick while Plumlee's status is less certain.
Follow @andrewlbeaton on Twitter.
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