Players must participate in NBA Combine to be draft-eligible moving forward

Are you withholding medical information or opting out of pre-draft workouts in hopes of avoiding certain teams or pushing toward others? If so, you will not be eligible for the NBA Draft moving forward — like, at all.

The NBA and NBPA sent out a 91-page memo to teams and players this week that included significant changes to draft eligibility moving forward, announcing that those invited to the NBA Combine cannot avoid participation starting in 2024, according to ESPN’s Jonathan Givony.

That includes “league medical examinations, sharing of medical history and biomechanical and functional movement testing, as well as strength and agility testing, shooting drills, performance testing and anthropometric measurements.” Team interviews, media circuits, player development sessions and other assessments” will also be required. The only thing players will be able to avoid moving forward is 5-on-5 scrimmaging at the combine, something most projected first-round picks opt out of anyway. That will continue to be allowed.

The goal is to avoid players from targeting certain franchises as preferred destinations while avoiding others during the draft process, something that happens almost every year with high-profile picks. Starting next year, the projected No. 1 pick will have to share medical information with teams picking in the top 10, while players ranked 2-6 will have to share with the top 15, 7-10 with the top 25. The only exceptions include potentially life-threatening injury or medical conditions that determine a player is unfit to perform his duties as a pro basketball player.

The NBA and NBPA will determine top-10 prospects by using publicly available rankings, an appointed panel of experts and a retained-scouting service.

Failure to follow new guidelines will result in players being ineligible to be selected on draft night, no questions asked. In short, gone are the days of potential draft picks making demands about playing for a certain franchise or refusing to play for others. You’re either in or out.

Elsewhere, the new CBA will go away from automatic eligibility for players signed with the G League Ignite, Overtime Elite or the Australian NBL, among other pro routes. Before, those going down those paths — the Thompson twins with OTE being the current example — were draft-eligible no matter if they wanted (or were ready) to go to the NBA or not. Now, players can sign pro deals with the likes of the G League, OTE and international teams and stay multiple seasons if they choose to do so.

Pretty significant.

For more details on new guidelines moving forward, click here.