The coronavirus pandemic has affected everybody in a dramatic way and for the NBA, they have had to navigate through some murky waters. For one, the NBA Draft has been affected in a huge way as it will no longer be held on its originally scheduled date of June 25 and it is affecting the process itself.
Teams will not be allowed to hold individual workouts nor will they be able to speak to players individually so everything they have will be based on the tape they have on players from the regular season as well as Zoom conference calls. General manager Elton Brand, who recently lost assistant Marc Eversley to the Chicago Bulls, will have his hands full when it comes to preparing for this draft.
“(VP of Scouting) Vince Rozman, I give him a lot of credit, he ran our predraft process last year and is doing a great job again this year,” said Brand on Tuesday. “A lot of deep dives, a lot of film work, I’ve been talking to agents, families, players, and I have some calls today. The five, potentially five picks, we think this is a deep draft and we’re excited. We were one of the first teams to pull our scouts from the road so we could get some video if it got to the point where we are today.”
In terms of interviews, Brand did add that he has done a few interviews and that he has one scheduled for Tuesday. In fact, he has been prepping for the 2020 Draft for a long time. This is a culmination of interviews and speaking to agents in an effort to be prepared for that night.
“I’ve spoken to parents, I’ve spoken to agents, the draft is a multi-year thing, it’s a build-up, and draft night is the culmination of that,” he explained. “We know who the prospects are, we do deep dives, but there’s little things you can pick up one-on-one and in person and talking to a potential prospect.”
He did add that it is much different talking to a prospect over a Zoom call rather than seeing a player in a workout environment, but maybe that’s a good thing. For example, the Detroit Pistons were blown away by Darko Milicic’s workout in 2003 and they selected him over Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh with the second overall pick.
“It’s much different interviewing someone on Zoom and not having them coming into the court for a workout,” Brand finished with. “Sometimes you can get blown away by a workout and that can skew your thoughts on a player, but if you know a lot about them, it’s good to at least be able to talk to them, video conference or in person.”
Whenever the draft is, the Sixers will enter with five picks, four of them in the second round. Brand and his team will have to use all of the resources at their disposal in order to make sure they are making the correct decision on draft night. [lawrence-related id=30510,30501,30493]