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Jabari Parker, Joel Embiid and Andrew Wiggins not expected at NBA Draft Combine

Andrew Wiggins

Kansas freshman NCAA college basketball player Andrew Wiggins leaves a news conference at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kan., Monday, March 31, 2014. Wiggins announced he would be entering the NBA draft. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)

AP

For the best prospects in the NBA Draft pool the two-day NBA Draft Combine (May 15 and 16) is unlikely to include much work in the way of on-court drills. Given their status as likely lottery selections, those players tend to not go through the agility, jumping and strength (185-pound bench press) drills that the other attendees will have to navigate.

Generally that means going through the physical examination, with the results being given out to the 30 NBA teams.

However Duke’s Jabari Parker and Kansas’ tandem of Andrew Wiggins and Joel Embiid, considered to be the top three prospects in this year’s draft pool, have decided to take it a step further: none are expected to even be in Chicago for the combine, according to both Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports and Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com.

For some that may be seen as a “red flag” of sorts, especially in the case of Embiid given the lower back injury that prematurely ended his freshman season. But an unnamed general manager quoted in Wojnarowski’s story didn’t take that stance at all.

“To be honest,” one general manager told Yahoo Sports, “I’m surprised more guys don’t do this. It’s the only thing they can really control.”

Whether or not a prospect goes through the NBA-administered physical, they’re still going to have to be checked out by the teams they visit/work out for during the pre-draft process. And in the case of these three, their status as the top prospects in the draft will allow them to choose which teams to undergo a physical for once the NBA Draft lottery is held according to Wojnarowski.

The decisions of these three to eschew the NBA-administered physical is a surprising turn of events given the history of elite prospects at the very least showing up at the combine to be examined. If anything, it will be interesting if other elite prospects in the years to come choose to do the same.

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