
NBA Combine Results 2017: Players Who Made Biggest Impression
After two days of drills, athletic testing, measurements, interviews and five-on-five action, the 2017 NBA Draft Combine is officially in the books.
Several of this year's top prospects, including Lonzo Ball, Jayson Tatum and Josh Jackson, opted to skip the event. But there has still been plenty of up-and-coming NBA players who impressed.
A number of draft stocks rose over the last two days. Here are the most impressive.
Duke point guard Frank Jackson started the combine on the fence about whether he would actually stay in the draft. After looking like one of the best players in Chicago during the five-on-five action on Thursday, the choice became a pretty obvious one.
Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical reported the decision:
Jackson followed up the momentum of Thursday with some impressive numbers in the athletic testing portion of the combine.
His max vertical leap of 42" ranked second among all participants, and his standing vertical jump of 35.5" ranked third.
The elite athleticism he displayed over the last two days was a big part of why he was a top-20 recruit heading into college, per Scout.com. After a year of playing third fiddle to Luke Kennard and Grayson Allen, he finally had a chance to show it again.
Hamidou Diallo
The only player with a higher max vertical leap than Jackson this year? That would be Kentucky's Hamidou Diallo, who forced the combine to get creative in how to measure his hops.
Bleacher Report's Scott Phillips captured the scene:
Diallo really had no option but to impress. He didn't get to show anything at Kentucky this past season because he didn't appear in a single game after enrolling midseason.
That made him this year's so-called man of mystery, something he may not be much longer after his performance in Chicago.
His 44.5" max vertical leap was tops for this year's class. That, in combination with his 6'5" height and 6'11 ¼" wingspan, makes him a very intriguing guard prospect.
Jordan Bell
Jackson and Diallo are both one-and-dones (Diallo technically isn't even that), which adds to the intrigue. NBA coaching staffs and front offices love getting ahold of talent as early as possible.
And upperclassmen are generally viewed as having less potential, often because they couldn't dominate the college level until they were older than most of their opponents.
But showing the kind of athleticism that Oregon junior Jordan Bell did might subdue some of the concern that typically accompanies an older prospect.
According to Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress, the 6'8 ½" Bell ran the fastest shuttle time in combine history:
Add that to a 6'11 ¾" wingspan and a 38" max vertical leap and you suddenly have a really interesting big man to analyze.
If he can add a consistent three-point stroke, something he showed flashes of in this video from DraftExpress' Mike Schmitz, look out:
Putting it all together may take time, but Bell may have already shown enough to convince some team to take him at the end of the first round.








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