With only nine teams still alive in the postseason, and that number set to drop to eight after Sunday's Game 7 between the Clippers and Jazz, other franchises have already turned their attention to the NBA Draft.
Before that comes NBA Draft Combine, scheduled for May 9-14. Teams get a chance to see prospects perform in drills, get measurement and test results and see them play. It provides scouts and teams a chance to see players they may have missed during the college season, or just want to see again.
Lonzo Ball of UCLA will not be one of them, according to Shams Charania of The Vertical.
Sources: Possible top pick Lonzo Ball formally informed NBA today he will skip the Draft Combine. Several top prospects expected to do same.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) April 29, 2017
It's hardly unprecedented, as many expected top picks have skipped the event in past years, including Andrew Wiggins, Karl-Anthony Towns and Ben Simmons.
For surefire high lottery picks, there is no upside to attending. Markelle Fultz is the consensus No. 1 pick, but there's still time for that to change, with Ball not far behind. With that expectation, why would Ball want to give scouts a chance to pick his game apart, or find new flaws against better competition. The Ball family already lost potential money this week, as Nike, Adidas, and Under Armour announced they would not use Ball as an endorser.
There's no reason to show up to the combine and potentially lose more money by sliding down draft boards.
