The NBA spends more time scutinizing things like wingspan and standing reach than they do actual heights. How big a player is with his hands above his head and with his arms outstretched means much more on the basketball court than a static height.
• JaVale McGee got a big boost from his measurements. His enormous 9-foot-6½ standing reach was tops in the camp and his 7-foot-6 wingspan was second only to John Riek, who has a freakish 7-foot-8¾ wingspan. McGee also weighed in at a respectable 244 pounds. Clearly he's been putting on weight in preparation for the draft, which might explain why he seemed to struggle in the drills.
Brook Lopez's measurements were also strong. His 9-foot-5 standing reach and his 7-foot-5½ wingspan are excellent for an NBA big man. He also weighed in at 258 pounds with just 6.3 percent body fat, which means he's mostly muscle and bone.
DeAndre Jordan had a 9-foot-5½ standing reach and 7-foot-6 wingspan which puts him in the same camp as both Lopez and McGee for height.
All three of these players had bigger measurements than Greg Oden did last year.
• We can quit asking questions about Michael Beasley's height. He has a very respectable 8-foot-11 standing reach and a 7-foot¼-inch wingspan. That's slightly under the ideal measurements for a power forward, but it's big enough.
• Of the forwards, Kevin Love measured a respectable 6-foot-9½ in shoes, but his standing reach of 8-foot-10 was a little disappointing. The ideal measurement for a power forward is a 9-foot standing reach. Still, it was only an inch below Al Horford's measurement, and Horford played center for Atlanta this past season. Love's numbers, across the board, are pretty close to Horford's, actually, and that should give him a big boost on draft night.
Anthony Randolph's 9-foot-1 standing reach and 7-foot-3 wingspan are virtually identical to Chris Bosh's. However, Bosh weighed 225 pounds at the combine and Randolph was a shocking 197 pounds. That's scary -- we thought Kevin Durant was skinny last year when he weighed 215 pounds.
Joe Alexander also measured very well for a small forward, with the same standing reach and wingspan of Love.
Meanwhile, Donte Greene isn't nearly as "long" as some claim. His wingspan is just an inch longer than his height. But he's still plenty big to play both the 3 and the 4 in the NBA with a 9-foot standing reach.
• The guards all measured a little short.
Derrick Rose measured a little smaller than expected. He was supposed to be closer to 6-foot-4, but measured 6-foot-2½ in shoes. He does have a very long wingspan at 6-foot-8, but his standing reach is a little more disappointing at 8-foot-2½. Overall, he measured about a half an inch bigger than Deron Williams with a longer wingspan by two inches.
Russell Westbrook was the biggest of the top guard prospects with an 8-foot-4 standing reach. Westbrook's measurements are very similar to what Rodney Stuckey posted last year.
Mayo was just behind him with an 8-foot-3½-inch standing reach.
Augustin measured the shortest with a 7-foot-10½ standing reach. However, that's not all bad. Augustin's numbers put him on par with Mike Conley and he has a bigger standing reach and wingspan than Chris Paul. In fact Augustin bested both Paul and Conley on measurements and athletic ability with one exception -- Paul and Conley both had more impressive vertical leaps. But Augustin's vertical leap is good enough. In other words, there's nothing I can see here that says that Augustin's too small for the NBA.
Gordon probably was hurt the most by his measurements. His standing reach is several inches below the 8-foot-5 ideal for 2-guards. But his long wingspan and athleticism should make up for it. Gordon's measurements are almost identical to the Bulls' Ben Gordon.
• A few of the other non-lottery participants had interesting measurements.
Cal's DeVon Hardin should get a boost. He had a 9-foot-1½ standing reach and a 7-foot-3 wingspan -- both are excellent numbers for a power forward.
Joey Dorsey may be just 6-foot-7 in shoes, but his long wingspan of 7- foot-1¾ and his solid standing reach of 8-foot-11 should give him the ability to play power forward in the pros.
Arkansas' Sonny Weems measured well, too. His 8-foot-8 standing reach and 6-foot-10 wingspan is very good for a swingman.
BYU's Trent Plaisted took a beating, however. He has short arms and a long neck which added up to an 8-foot-9½ standing reach. That's a little below average for a power forward, let alone a center.
UNC's trio wasn't helped in the measurement department either. Ty Lawson had a 7-foot-9½ standing reach -- an inch smaller than Augustin. He also had a small 6-foot-1 wingspan. Danny Green's 8- foot-4 standing reach was smaller than Russell Westbrook's. And Wayne Ellington's 8-foot-5½ wingspan barely gets him to where he needs to be at the 2-guard position.
Hillsbourgh Community College's Keith Brumbaugh's poor Orlando predraft camp combined with so-so measurements (his wingspan is an inch smaller than his height) and poor scores in the athletic combine could hurt his dreams of getting drafted in the second round.

While the height and weight measurements (http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/draft2008/insider/columns/story?columnist=ford_chad&page=Measurements-080603) from the NBA pre-draft camp are interesting and relevant, NBA GMs and scouts also spend a lot of time dissecting the results of the NBA physical combine.
For the fifth straight year, Insider has obtained this confidential report from a league source.
Everyone should take these numbers with a grain of salt. No one gets drafted solely on their test scores. But teams do take these reports seriously. Most scouting departments believe that there are minimum athletic hurdles that players need to clear to show that they can be successful in the NBA. While the "best athlete in the draft" has never been the best player in the draft, this is the first objective testing that we have on the top prospects.
What are the drills?
Players are asked to bench press 185 pounds as many times as they can, test their vertical jump in two ways (no step and maximum) and run several drills to measure speed and lateral quickness.
For the first time in years, the NBA didn't create a composite score to rank the top athletes in the draft, so we'll break it down for you by category.
Georgetown's Patrick Ewing Jr. shocked everyone by recording the biggest maximum vertical with a whopping 42 inches. Five other players jumped 40 or more inches in the maximum vertical jump: O.J. Mayo (http://insider.espn.go.com/nbadraft/draft/tracker/player?draftyear=2008&playerId=19129) (41), Bryce Taylor (http://insider.espn.go.com/nbadraft/draft/tracker/player?draftyear=2008&playerId=19122) (41), Eric Gordon (http://insider.espn.go.com/nbadraft/draft/tracker/player?draftyear=2008&playerId=19131) (40), Derrick Rose (http://insider.espn.go.com/nbadraft/draft/tracker/player?draftyear=2008&playerId=19132) (40) and Deron Washington (40). Jiri Hubalek (26) and Brian Butch (26.5) had the two worst scores in the camp.
Xavier's Josh Duncan (http://insider.espn.go.com/nbadraft/draft/tracker/player?draftyear=2008&playerId=19253) and West Virginia's Joe Alexander (http://insider.espn.go.com/nbadraft/draft/tracker/player?draftyear=2008&playerId=19096) tested as the strongest athletes in the camp. Duncan bench pressed 185 pounds 26 times and Alexander did 24 reps. Three other players got the bar up 20 or more times: Takais Brown (22), Stanley Burrell (21), and DeVon Hardin (http://insider.espn.go.com/nbadraft/draft/tracker/player?draftyear=2008&playerId=18960) (20). A number of players tied for the worst (two reps) including D.J. Augustin (http://insider.espn.go.com/nbadraft/draft/tracker/player?draftyear=2008&playerId=19083), Keith Brumbaugh (http://insider.espn.go.com/nbadraft/draft/tracker/player?draftyear=2008&playerId=19257), Ewing, Donte Greene (http://insider.espn.go.com/nbadraft/draft/tracker/player?draftyear=2008&playerId=19135), Davon Jefferson (http://insider.espn.go.com/nbadraft/draft/tracker/player?draftyear=2008&playerId=18876) and Mike Taylor.
In the lane-agility test, Duke's DeMarcus Nelson (http://insider.espn.go.com/nbadraft/draft/tracker/player?draftyear=2008&playerId=19246) had the best score, finishing the drill in 10.54 seconds. Arkansas' Sonny Weems (http://insider.espn.go.com/nbadraft/draft/tracker/player?draftyear=2008&playerId=19288) was second at 10.58 seconds. Stanford's Brook Lopez (http://insider.espn.go.com/nbadraft/draft/tracker/player?draftyear=2008&playerId=19042) finished dead last with a score of 12.77 seconds.
In the three-quarter court sprints, Weems led the way with a blinding 2.96-second run. Joe Alexander was second at 2.99 and Eric Gordon was third at 3.01. Those three scores, based on our available data from the last five years, are the fastest times ever run at the combine. Derrick Rose (3.05) and Brian Roberts (3.05) tied for fourth. Brook Lopez was last at 3.57.

Chart of full results here (http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/draft2008/insider/columns/story?columnist=ford_chad&page=CombineResults-080603)


The Good

• Among the top players in the draft, the big winner was Joe Alexander, who tested off the charts in just about every category except agility. He's been saying that he's the best athlete in the draft and it's hard to argue with the scores he put up here.
• If Alexander was the most athletic big man in the draft, Eric Gordon was the most athletic guard. He was near the top in every category from vertical jump (40 inches) to 3/4-court sprint (3.01 sec) to lane agility (10.81 seconds) to bench pressing (15 reps). Those are all great scores.
We've been comparing Eric Gordon to Ben Gordon this year and, when you look at the numbers, he outperformed the Bulls guard in every area athletically and he also measured slightly bigger. That bodes well for the "better version of Ben Gordon" comparisons.
• As we reported earlier (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/draft2008/columns/story?columnist=ford_chad&page=Orlandostockwatch080531), Kevin Love tested better than you'd think in just about every category. He is by no means a great athlete, but he's not a bad one either. When you factor in that he still has 12 percent body fat, one would expect him to get even quicker and more explosive once he drops a few more pounds in preparation for the draft.
• O.J. Mayo also will be helped by this report. A few teams I spoke with were shocked that he recorded a 41-inch vertical, which was higher than Rose's. Mayo wasn't considered an elite athlete, but he out-tested Rose on some key measures like vertical jump and lane agility and was very close to him on his three-quarter court sprint.
• Michael Beasley came out looking pretty good, too. His 35-inch vertical and good times in the speed events should quiet concerns about his athleticism.

The Bad

• Brook Lopez really struggled in all of the athletic drills. He's huge (his wingspan measured out at 7-foot-5 ½), but NBA teams are shying away from the more-lumbering big men. He wasn't awful during the testing, but many thought he'd do a little better.
• DeAndre Jordan also didn't fare nearly as well as teams would've expected. He's been labled as a Dwight Howard-type athlete, but he didn't put up anything close to the numbers Howard put up a few years ago.
• Donte Greene and Darrell Arthur -- two guys touted for their athleticism -- disappointed many with their poor vertical-jump scores. Arthur also fared very poorly in the lane-agility drill.
• JaVale McGee didn't light up the drills either for someone touted as a great athlete for a player his size. He looked a little out of shape in the workouts, which can't help his cause.

The Rest

• Arkansas' Sonny Weems played well enough during the camp to get on teams' radars. But his very strong combine numbers should get him serious consideration for a possible second-round pick. Weems' speed scores were off the charts for a swingman. He recorded the fastest sprint score we've ever seen and led the camp in lane-agility drills. Considering that he also measured well, he looks like a much better prospect than we thought.
• Oregon's Malik Hairston tested as a much better athlete than anticipated. His vertical jump, lane agility, sprint and strength numbers were all near the top. That could bode very well for him as he fights to make the second-round cut. His teammate Bryce Taylor also tested well.
• BYU's Trent Plaisted's didn't score high in the measurements department, but athletically, his numbers put him on par with Michael Beasley as a quick power forward.
• USC's Davon Jefferson is officially the draft's big slider. After inexplicably entering the draft early and hiring an agent -- despite being projected as a second-round pick -- Jefferson played poorly in Orlando. Then, in the combine, he flat-out stunk. How can a forward built like Jefferson lift the bar just two times in the strength testing? His vertical jump and lane agility results also were poor for a player of his caliber. I wouldn't be shocked if he goes undrafted.
• UAB's Robert Vaden and Alabama's Ronald Steele could also be hurt by their poor scores.
• I was disappointed that we didn't get to see Ty Lawson's sprinting scores. He's widely recognized as one of the fastest players in college basketball. It would've been interesting to see how he fared next to Weems, Gordon and Rose.

no results for bill walker? he's a kid i'm really high on as he could be an explosive backup SF for us. he's got bulk and freakish athleticism even if he is an inch or 2 shorter than the average SF. but he's plenty big enough to play SF IMO.

BTW- i actually like mcgee a lot too. i think he'll impress more in individual workouts than in these sort of tests. especially if he's a bit heavier than he's used to being.

No Rush or Douglas Roberts either. Not sure why some are absent. I know in the NFL some do it and some don't for a variety of reasons. Is the NBA that way? I thought in the NFL they at least had to be measured (but didn't have to participate in drills).