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Louisville Basketball: NBA Combine Invite the Key to Spalding and Adel’s Future

By Jacob Lane

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The 2018 NBA Draft Combine invitations should be made public within 24-48 hours and both Deng Adel & Ray Spalding are hopeful to be included.

We haven’t heard much from former Louisville basketball stars Deng Adel and Ray Spalding since both announced they would be hiring agents and keeping their names in the 2018 NBA Draft.

While neither have been projected to be first rounders, or even second rounders at this point, it’s too early to say their decisions to leave Louisville were bad ones. Keep in mind both went through a very tough couple of years during their time on campus, and coming back for another season with more questions isn’t something a lot of people would want to do.

Nonetheless, both are now preparing for the draft in Miami awaiting word on whether they will be invited to the most important pre-draft event, the NBA Draft combine, held annually in Chicago.

Just like with the NFL, the NBA hosts a multi-day combine where 60-65 of the best draft eligible players are brought to one place to meet with NBA team’s, get their measurements (height, weight, etc.) taken, and compete in drills and even 5-on-5. These invites are precious as over 130 underclassmen declared for the draft this year (not to mention the draft eligible seniors) and 20+ more from Overseas put their name in as well, all with hopes of being one of just 60 players who hear their names called at the draft.

While the new two-way contracts have added 60 new spots to NBA rosters, and the G-League continues to develop, while Europe and other countries have extremely successful leagues, one of the coveted full-time roster spots are what these 60+ guys will be competing for.

For Deng Adel & Ray Spalding receiving that invite could be the difference in spending their career in the NBA G-League or overseas, versus claiming one of the 450 (60 two-way spots) roster spots across the NBA. While many players who do not receive combine invites will return to college to play out their remaining eligibility, Deng Adel and Ray Spalding do not have that luxury.

Last season 67 players were invited to the combine, 46 of those players were underclassmen. Remember a record number of underclassmen declared last season (185 to be exact) meaning that the majority did not receive invites.

Of the 46 underclassmen, 9 decided to return to college for their next season of eligibility, leaving 37 players in the draft pool. Of that group, 18 would go on to be first round picks. 11 would be 2nd round picks, and 8 would go undrafted. Of the 8 undrafted players, four of them signed two-way deals in which they split time between the NBA and the G-League. Two of them signed to play overseas, including Kentucky guard Isaiah Briscoe, while the other two signed affiliate deals to play with G-League team’s after being cut in training camp by an NBA team.

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So why does that make the NBA Combine so important? If you go back and look at everything I just broke down you’ll quickly realize, zero underclassmen who weren’t invited to the NBA combine were selected in the 2017 NBA Draft.  And only two underclassmen who ended up signing two-way or 10-day contracts were underclassmen who left school early, those being Antonio Blakeney of LSU and Florida State’s Xavier Rathan-Mayes.

If Ray Spalding and Deng Adel do not receive an NBA Combine invitation, the odds of them making an NBA roster are stacked against them. While they could go on to have strong individual workouts, and eventually work their way up draft boards or catch on with a team after a strong summer league performance, those are unlikely.

However, that does not mean they will not be successful pros. Plenty of players not selected in last year’s draft, or any draft for that matter, have had the opportunity to go on and sign lucrative deals overseas or catch on with a G-League team in hopes of receiving a call up to the NBA. For an example of that, look no further than former Louisville forward Jaylen Johnson.

The junior power forward who surprisingly declared for the 2017 NBA Draft went undrafted, barely even receiving a sniff from teams during predraft workouts, but went to training camp with the Chicago Bulls, where he was then sent down to play for the Windy City Bulls, Chicago’s G-League affiliate. He would go on to average 11.6 points, and 7.5 rebounds per game, which ended up getting him a call-up to the Bulls roster. Unfortunately, he didn’t get a chance to play in a game before he was released.

Point being, Spalding and Adel could go undrafted and still get the chance to play in the NBA. But if either players gets a combine invite this week, the odds of them getting drafted or signing with an NBA team are exponentially higher.

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The 2018 NBA Combine will take start on May 16th and run through May 20th. Players will have until June 11th to decide on whether to return to school or keep their names in the draft.

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