Wednesday, May 13, 2015

2015 NBA Combine: How Arizona's Players Measured Up (Literally)

How did Arizona's four NBA prospects measure out at the NBA combine?

All four of Arizona's 2015 NBA Draft prospects went through the "measurements" portion of the NBA combine on Wednesday. As part of this process, each player's hand length, height, weight, standing reach, and wingspan are all measured.

You can see the full list of measurements at NBA.com. Below are the most relevant measurements for Arizona's draft prospects and some thoughts on what it means for their draft position:

Player Height Without Shoes Height With Shoes Standing Reach Weight Wingspan
Brandon Ashley 6' 7.25" 6' 8.5" 8' 9" 228.0 lbs 7' 3.25"
Rondae Hollis-Jefferson 6' 5.5" 6' 7" 8' 8" 210.8 lbs 7' 2"
Stanley Johnson 6' 5" 6' 6.5" 8' 6" 241.8 lbs 6' 11.5"
T.J. McConnell 6' 0.5" 6' 2" 8' 0.5" 187.8 lbs 6' 2"

A few takeaways:

  1. T.J. McConnell isn't that short. T.J. measured out at 6' 2" in shoes, a full inch above his listed height at Arizona. There are plenty of other point guard prospects who are taller than him, but McConnell is about the same height at Tyus Jones, Cameron Payne, and Terry Rozier, all of whom are potential first round picks. If McConnell is undersized, as some draft experts have suggested, it isn't by much.
  2. Brandon Ashley needs taller shoes. Every other draft prospect from Arizona added 1.5" to his height by putting on shoes, but Brandon only added 1.25". Come on, man. As expected, Brandon is a little undersized to play 4 or 5 in the NBA, so he will have to make up for that with his shooting ability and defense. Ideally, teams will think of him as a David West or Markieff Morris-type, two other undersized 4s who can stretch the defense with their shooting.
  3. Rondae Hollis-Jefferson is who we thought he was. Rondae Hollis-Jefferson is 6' 7" with a huge wingspan and very little body fat. That's almost exactly what you want from a wing defender. He's actually a little bigger than the wing defender I love to compare him to, and hopefully NBA teams will see the comparison as well.
  4. Stanley Johnson is still built like a mack truck. Stanley is a bull. He's the heaviest small forward in the draft, weighing ten pounds more than Justin Anderson (who is a distance second). And he's twenty pounds heavier than Duke small forward Justise Winslow. The Justise Winslow comparison is interesting -- Stanley is bigger and stronger than Winslow, but Winslow is higher on most draft boards -- and I wonder if Stanley will start to creep up as a prospect as we get closer to the draft.
All of Arizona's prospects measured out as well as expected (or maybe a tiny bit better, in T.J.'s case), which bodes well for their draft prospects. It's very early in the process, though, and we will see how the rest of the combine (including the physical and 5-on-5 portions) shake out.


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