CHICAGO -- The 2016 NBA draft combine officially got underway on Wednesday with player measurements and team interviews. But the real fun begins on Thursday (3 pm ET on ESPN2/WatchESPN).
As always, a horde of NBA GMs, scouts and head coaches are here to dig deeper into the top picks in the upcoming draft. The combine will feature five-on-five games, shooting and skill drills, athletic testing, measurements, medical evaluations and team interviews.
Here's a sneak preview of what to expect on Thursday and Friday.
1. The NBA draft combine continues to struggle to get the top players to participate.
For the first time since 2008, the combine featured five-on-five games last year -- a major selling point to NBA folks who had tired of shooting and layup drills.
Unfortunately just two players who were drafted in the first round -- Louisville's Terry Rozier and Wyoming's Larry Nance Jr. -- actually played.
This year it looks like the five-on-five portion is headed for a similar fate.
Five players in our top 20 -- Ben Simmons, Dragan Bender, Domantas Sabonis, Furkan Korkmaz and Dejounte Murray -- won't do anything. No drills, no athletic testing, no medical, no interviews. Nothing.
Bender and Korkmaz have team commitments in Israel and Turkey that are preventing them from playing.
For Simmons, Sabonis and Murray? It's more complicated. Simmons is considered the front-runner for the No. 1 pick. Last year, Karl-Anthony Towns, Jahlil Okafor and Emmanuel Mudiay all skipped the event as well. There's precedence.
Sabonis and Murray are both out of our top 10, making their moves much more unusual. Multiple NBA team sources have hypothesized that they may have promises from teams. Until we see their workout schedule (or lack thereof) it's only a guess.
Several other players, including Brandon Ingram, Jamal Murray and Buddy Hield, went through official measurements and team interviews but will skip the five-on-five, drills and testing. Hield has a legitimate excuse; he has to return to Oklahoma for his graduation ceremony. Both Ingram and Murray see themselves as top-five picks.
Kris Dunn and Skal Labissiere are also slated to skip both the five-on-five, drills and athletic testing on Thursday and Friday
A number of other players in our top 30 (and one just outside it) -- Henry Ellenson, Marquese Chriss, Jakob Poeltl, Jaylen Brown, Denzel Valentine, Tyler Ulis, Diamond Stone, Malik Beasley, Malachi Richardson, Ante Zizic, Demetrius Jackson, Thon Maker, Brice Johnson, Timothe Luwawu and Wade Baldwin -- won't play in the five-on-five.
And one guy outside our top 60 -- Purdue's A.J. Hammons -- is skipping the event.
In other words, we are right back to where we were last year when three projected first-rounders played in the five-on-five.
Why would players refuse to participate in the combine? It's on the agents. More and more, agents care less about draft position and more about finding the right fits for their clients. By withholding information (especially medical examinations), it gives them leverage to steer their clients away from teams that are undesirable.
And what is the least desirable team in the NBA right now? It's the Sacramento Kings. Based on my conversations on Wednesday, it looks like the Kings will struggle to get any players in the top 10 in for workouts.
"It's the most dysfunctional team in the NBA," one agent said. "I've had several clients there. They were miserable. Miserable. They don't know what they're doing. And nothing they've done this spring has changed my opinion. It would be malpractice to send one of my clients there."
2. Good news: Several players ranked in our top 30 are planning on playing five-on-five.
St. Joseph's DeAndre Bembry, Iowa's Jarrod Uthoff and Villanova's Josh Hart are scheduled to play.
I spoke with a number of NBA scouts and GMs to see if there were any less obvious prospects outside our top 30 that might turn into first-round sleepers with a strong draft camp.
The names were pretty consistent:
Isaiah Whitehead (some scouts think he's a better version of Dion Waiters)
Joel Bolomboy (athletic, great motor, elite rebounder, may have been underscouted at Weber State)
Pascal Siakam (athletic rebounder and shot blocker, also went a bit underscouted)
Cheick Diallo (was ranked in the preseason top 10, but struggled to get meaningful playing time at Kansas)
Malik Newman (also ranked in our preseason top 10, but struggled all season at Mississippi State)
Patrick McCaw (athletic wing who can guard three positions)
Jake Layman (athletic and can shoot the ball, but was under utilized at Maryland)
Jaron Blossomgame (shot 45 percent from 3-point territory for Clemson last season)
3. Overall, scouts aren't enamored with the depth of this draft.
They love Simmons and Ingram. And some love Murray, Dunn, Hield and Bender. But after that scouts and GMs have been pretty universal in saying that the quality drops off dramatically.
By the time you get out of the top 10, you're mostly looking at potential rotation players. That means that we could see a very fluid Big Board after the top 10 leading up to draft day. Different teams have different players ranked in wildly different places. It's hard to find a consensus outside the top 10.
4. The most important part of the process? Virtually every GM will tell you it's the interviews and medical evaluations.
Teams spent up to four hours a day on both Wednesday and Thursday morning sitting down individually with players.
Several players got rave reviews from NBA GMs on the interview portion. One player mentioned by multiple teams as having a stellar interview: Demetrius Jackson, who has a Jimmy Butler-esque background story.
Buddy Hield was another player who drew praise, including this nugget from an NBA GM.
"I'll be shocked if that young man fails in the NBA. He has the mentality that reminds me a lot of Damian Lillard. He's a warrior. He's driven. He's a leader. He's relentless. We all loved him."
5. Finally, some of the best action at the combine happens outside the purview of the NBA.
On Wednesday night, it was Skal Labissiere putting on an impromptu workout at Roosevelt College.
Labissiere was ranked as the No. 2 prospect on our Big Board in the preseason but struggled all season at Kentucky with his toughness (both physically and mentally) when John Calipari asked him to work on his post game.
But freed from the paint, Labissiere looks like a different player. He has a silky smooth jumper and was nailing NBA 3-pointers from everywhere on the floor Wednesday night.
Skal Labissiere practicing for NBA 3-point contest. Kid has a silky jumper pic.twitter.com/YWVpAdvXMF
- Chad Ford (@chadfordinsider) May 12, 2016
Yes, it was a workout setting. And yes, Labissiere has done this before at the Nike Hoop Summit practices in a similar sort of non-game setting.
He lacks strength. He looked overwhelmed when asked to play physically at Kentucky. There are also major questions about his on-court decision-making and drive. His production at Kentucky was disappointing.
But when you factor in his background as a late bloomer who didn't play in a high-level program his senior season of high school, struggled to qualify academically at Kentucky and was playing in the shadow of Anthony Davis and Karl-Anthony Towns with similar hype, perhaps he deserves a second look.
NBA teams love athletic big men who can shoot 3-pointers and protect the rim. Labissiere, in that workout setting, reminded me a lot of a young Channing Frye. If he can hit jumpers and block shots in real games, he's worth a top-10 pick in this draft.