Jun. 19—MORGANTOWN, W.. Va. — On Monday morning, the doors at the Wintrust Arena in Chicago will open and 69 of the top college basketball and international players will walk through to begin the 2021 NBA Combine.
Among them will be West Virginia point guard Deuce McBride, who appears to be one of the more intriguing prospects this year.
“West Virginia guard Miles McBride is another to keep an eye on, ” wrote Kyle Boone of CBSSports.com. “He is an under-the-radar talent teams are interested in who is capable of rising into first round territory.”
During the combine, McBride will be measured with and without shoes, his hands and wingspan will be measured, as will his vertical jump.
NBA teams leave nothing to chance when it comes to measurements, taking more of them than your local tailor.
He will go through agility drills, lift some weights and then test his jump shot in some good old-fashioned shooting drills.
Later in the week come the 5-on-5 scrimmages, which will play out in front of scouts and general managers from all 30 NBA teams, all armed with their notepads and keen eyes looking to see which prospects have the right stuff and which ones don’t.
That, in a nutshell, is the combine.
I was fortunate enough to be there in 2012 when former WVU standout Kevin Jones was going through the same process.
When the power forwards were put through the shooting drills, Jones did more than hold his own. He was actually one of the better ones on display.
But, when it came time for the agility and athleticism drills, Jones obviously didn’t have the same kind of ups as others.
He went undrafted in 2012, but later caught on with the Cleveland Cavaliers and played in 32 career NBA games.
Now, I have no idea how McBride will perform at the combine.
I’ve never witnessed him bench pressing 185 pounds as many times as possible and I have no idea what McBride’s vertical jump is.
I don’t know how fast he runs or how big his hands are compared to Cade Cunningham’s.
As silly as some of that may sound—because no NBA player has ever been awarded a single point during a game for bench pressing 185 pounds 20 times—all of it matters to NBA general managers.
To be sure, what Boone wrote is very much true. McBride in an intriguing prospect who had a solid sophomore season with the Mountaineers.
He improved his 3-point shooting by 11 percentage points compared to his freshman season. He shot the ball better from the floor, rebounded it better and passed it better.
McBride was already invited to one pre-draft workout with the Boston Celtics earlier this week, a team that needs a point guard after trading Kemba Walker on Friday.
If McBride is able to put together a good showing at the combine, it’s not an irrational thought that he could be a first-round prospect.
And that would set the scene for an important decision McBride has to make sometime between now and July 19 on whether to keep his name in the draft or return to the Mountaineers for another season in college.
It is a decision up to McBride and his family, so I’ll not throw our two cents in on the matter.
What needs to be pointed out, though, is any prospect in 2021 has to understand that the current state of the NBA is unique than maybe at any other time in the league’s history.
This is not the mid-1990s NBA, when Larry Bird and Magic Johnson were retired and Michael Jordan was off playing baseball.
Despite the presence of Shaquille O’Neal, the league back then was so starved for an injection of young blood that guys like Chris Webber, Penny Hardaway, Grant Hill and Jamal Mashburn were instantly thrust into roles of being the future of the league and carrying their teams to multiple championships.
That never really panned out.
In 2021, the NBA has an over abundance of young stars, many of whom have already made some type of impact in postseason play.
Luca Doncic is all of 22 years old. Zion Williamson is 20. Trae Young is 22. Jayson Tatum is 23. Ja Morant is 21.
These are just the first guys who popped into my head.
At 30, Damion Lillard is not slowing down. Steph Curry just won a scoring title at 33. Devin Booker is growing into an elite talent right in front of our eyes in the 2021 playoffs and he’s all of 24.
We could keep going. LaMelo Ball is 19. Donovan Mitchell is 24. Heck, even Anthony Davis is still a young man at 28, although he can’t stay healthy.
The last thing the NBA needs right now is an injection of young talent.
What does that mean for McBride and the rest of the 2021 prospects ?
Well, if I was on Team McBride, I would certainly be in his ear explaining that even being a first-round pick in 2021 may not exactly have the same meaning it did five or 10 years ago.
Is the money still good ? You bet.
According to the NBA rookie salary scale, the 30th and final first-round pick would earn $1.61 million his first season and $1.69 million his second season.
That’s a lot of money, but first-round picks are only guaranteed two-year contracts in the league.
What McBride will eventually have to ask himself is he in this deal just to get drafted and make quick money or does he want a career ?
If the answer is a career, well, with the influx of young talent already in the NBA, there will be less opportunities to carve one out, because most teams already have their building blocks in place for the foreseeable future.
Unless a prospect is a sure-fire top 10 pick, the thought here is it will be easy for all the other picks to get lost in the shuffle, whether they are first or second-round selections.
If McBride were to return to WVU for another season, yeah, he could develop into one of those top 10 guys for 2022.
It’s just a matter of what’s important to him and how he performs this week in the combine could go a long way in helping McBride come up with that answer.
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