Louisville basketball: Jordan Nwora out at the NBA Combine with injury

We are in the midst of the 2019 NBA Draft Combine and there are some telling signs that Jordan Nwora is planning on returning to the Louisville basketball program.

We continue to talk about Jordan Nwora’s decision on whether to stay in the 2019 NBA Draft or to return back to the Louisville basketball program and it’s well deserved. This decision could possibly be one of the biggest decisions in the last 10 plus years of Louisville basketball.

That’s a debate for another time, one that I welcome, but with a roster built for a run to the Final Four in 2019-2020, a lot is hinging on what Nwora decides to do.

If he decides to come back he could be the Preseason ACC Player of the Year selection and Louisville could easily be the favorite to win the ACC. If he doesn’t, the Cards are still likely a top 25 team but it will be more of a “rebuilding” year of sorts with up to eight or nine new players on the roster.

Getting an invite to the combine, an event that is extremely exclusive with only 60 players participating out of a draft pool that is up over 200+ players, was a huge first step and one that made me seriously begin to believe that the 6’8″ sharpshooter was headed to the NBA.

But after two days of the NBA Combine, it seems that there are some head-scratching decisions being made by Nwora’s camp.

We now know that Nwora will not be participating in the measurement portion of the combine or competing in the 5-on-5 scrimmages or any of the basketball drills. It seemed rather odd that he would skip all of these things (essentially the whole combine) with no one outside of NBADraft.net projecting him as a first-rounder unless something was up.

That’s exactly what’s happening. According to Adam Zagoria, Jordan Nwora is out with an injury.

At this point, we don’t know what the injury is or how serious it might be, but for it to keep Nwora out of the Combine seems like it would destroy any chances of his stock rising.

As we mentioned this morning, Nwora is currently rated as the 60th best player in the 2019 NBA Draft and the 17th best small forward according to CBS Sports, which means by numbers alone he’d be the last pick of the draft if that’s how things played out.

With Chris Mack hinting a few weeks ago that Jordan Nwora’s family has had conversations about the Draft and what it would take for him to stay in, the one thing that came up was Nwora being a first round lock.

Unless Nwora’s injury is minor and he is still able to go through workouts the odds are against him climbing that high and ultimately staying in the draft.

Instead, a return to school for his junior season would be likely, one where Nwora could see his stock soar if improvements are made to his game.

Don’t misunderstand what I’m saying. I am by no means reporting that Jordan Nwora is returning, but with him being forced to miss the most important part of the NBA Draft process, the writing is on the wall.