Our own contributor, Kris Habbas, is also a scout who runs NBADraftInsider.com, one of the best NBA draft and scouting websites in the country.
Tonight, Kris posted the raw measurements of all the top prospects for the draft (except Alex Len). Each year, there's a few guys who measure bigger than people thought they'd be, and a few who drop because of their alligator arms or lack of overall height.
For a shooting guard, it's tough to measure under 6'5" but it does help to have really long arms. Dwyane Wade is only 6'5" but his reach is almost 7'0" which always helped him overcome that deficiency.
The Phoenix Suns, who draft somewhere between #1 overall and #7 overall, must have come away with some new information to add to their databanks that just might shuffle their draft board. They have needed a top-end wing player for a long time, so let's look at how the top wings measured.
Victor Oladipo measured only 6'4.25" in shoes (which, after all, how they play the game). His reach is over 6'9" though, so that should help him at the next level. But still, 6'4" is short for a starting SG in the NBA.
Ben McLemore measured only 6'4.75" in shoes himself. He's been compared to Ray Allen, though, who's only 6'5", but his reach is only 6'7.5" which is barely longer than Kendall Marshall for example.
Otto Porter, on the other hand, measured bigger than many expected. He's 6'8.5" in shoes (comparing favorably to Nic Batum) with a reach of over 7'1"! Consider that's a longer reach than many center prospects.
One guy who some are calling this year's Dion Waiters or Damian Lillard, for possibly getting drafted early in the lottery despite being an undersized combo guard, is C.J. McCollum. McCollum is a combo guard who can shoot and handle the ball and pass it.
McCollum, who missed most of last season due to injury, measured at 6'3.25" in shoes with a 6'6" wingspan. His size pushes him to the combo guard, sometime point guard, sometime shooter role in the NBA. If he can run a team, he could be a star (Lillard). But if he can't, he would be more like Leandro Barbosa or Dion Waiters.
Either way, given the dearth of star power in this draft, it's possible that McCollum could shoot all the way into the Suns drafting range.
Check out the measurements on Kris' website right now. Kris will be providing his own (real-er) analysis soon.
Athletic testing comes tomorrow, which can help but it also doesn't say a whole lot either. I remember when D.J. Strawberry was the "best athlete at the combine" years ago. Meant nothing.
But all this is just a little more information to add to the databanks. There's a whole lot of analysis that goes on, and video watching, and interviews, and private workouts, and all that jazz.
At the least, we can hope is that this year the Suns don't (a) fall in love with a single player to the detriment of their scouting and (b) don't overdraft someone that could have been drafted later.