2023 NBA Draft Combine winners, losers: Amari Bailey impresses, Pistons and Rockets fall in the lottery

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CHICAGO — The annual NBA Draft Combine, a nearly week-long spectacle where some of the top prospects can showcase themselves in front of NBA teams and talent evaluators, has officially come and gone, ticking off one of the most important and consequential pre-draft boxes of the cycle. Now we sit back, marinate, reflect and digest.

Today we’ll do that with a look back at the week’s winners and losers. If you’ve been following along in this space throughout the week, you’ll already be in the know about O-Max Prosper, No. 99, Isaiah Wong, Seth Lundy, Toumani Camara and some other standouts. So we won’t waste space here regurgitating more of the same. You can read about day two here or day one here. This will instead be a high-level overview of what I heard and saw from the week and my impression of players’ stock — either good or bad — after a long week in the Windy City. Some names in this space may be recurring characters, but this will largely be fresh faces in fresh spaces to fill gaps in coverage unfilled this week.

Let’s dive in.

Winner: Amari Bailey shows versatility

The start of the week for Bailey — a potential one-and-done from UCLA — was disastrously bad in the team scrimmage portion. Ugly turnover here, bad finish at the rim there. But he flipped a switch and turned it up a notch from there and really didn’t look back. In two scrimmages he finished with 36 points and 14 assists, standing out especially as a playmaker and facilitator. Bailey was sparingly used as a freshman with the Bruins and even less so did he have opportunities to run the offense, but he showed serious ability as a combo guard who could create looks with good vision.

Winner: Keyonte George stars in pro day

George wasn’t a participant in five-on-five work nor did he participate in shuttles, measurements or drills. But he made the most of his time in the spotlight, albeit brief, at his pro day earlier in the week. George showed off impressive athleticism with some above-the-rim finishes and showed off his range — both literally from a distance perspective and…

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Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/2023-nba-draft-combine-winners-losers-amari-bailey-impresses-pistons-and-rockets-fall-in-the-lottery/

Author : Kyle Boone

Publish date : 2023-05-19 21:38:48

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