Eric Musselman talks about fluidity of NBA Draft stock during combine process

Arkansas head coach Eric Musselman knows a thing or two about the NBA Draft process, spending 10 seasons coaching at the NBA level and having at least one player from his Razorback squad selected in the NBA Draft in all four of his seasons with the program.

Musselman had four players invited to this year’s NBA Combine in May, three of which were selected in the 2023 NBA Draft. And on ‘Hit That Line’, Musselman spoke about the impact the NBA Combine has on player’s draft stock.

“What happens is when the guys are doing their measurements, so to speak, the agility slides, the spot shooting, on that particular day it gets blown up and so magnified just because that’s really the only thing going on other than maybe one playoff game later in the night,” Musselman explained. “So it occupies everybody that’s interested in the NBA, it interests anybody that has a player testing the waters, but it’s a very very very small piece to the puzzle.”

The NBA Combine has recently risen in popularity amongst basketball fans, but according to Musselman, the league’s decision-makers take performances at the combine with a grain of salt.

“The first day games happen, and NBA people will talk about how a guy played well, but in reality, there’s a lot of mistakes that are made if you’re just going to evaluate a player based on what’s happened at the combine,” Musselman said. “For example, when I was with the Orlando Magic we drafted a guy named Johnny Taylor based on his performance and upside that he showed at the NBA Combine. Probably a mistake draft pick and there’s many many many other examples.”

Musselman’s NBA coaching career started off with the Magic in 1998, working as an assistant in Orlando before working his way up to become the head coach of the Golden State Warriors in 2002 for two seasons followed by a one-year head coaching stint with the Sacramento Kings.

A player’s in-season performance will always trump combine performance, a philosophy Musselman likely knew as an NBA coach and knows even more now from his experience at the collegiate level.

“But I do think that as this thing has progressed most of the NBA teams only use the combine as a very small piece to this entire puzzle. Because for guys who played college basketball there’s a 30-game sample size, there’s pressure situations during the college season whether it be the NCAA Tournament, whether it be the SEC Tournament, so there’s a lot and that’s not counting the practices that teams, NBA personnel, had come to and seen these guys behind closed doors,” Musselman said.

“So it’s just a very small piece, unfortunately, the media is following every step of it and with today’s Twitter and social media world, it gets overexposed in my opinion. And certainly, the decision-makers in the NBA are not affected by what’s getting up out there in the social media world”

Whether it was at the combine or during the season, evaluators liked what they saw from Musselman’s players this year.

Point guard Anthony Black became the highest draft pick in program history since Joe Kleine in 1985, selected No. 6 overall by the Orlando Magic in this year’s draft. Nick Smith Jr. was also selected in the first round with the No. 27 overall pick by the Charlotte Hornets, and rounding out the Razorbacks was Jordan Walsh, selected in the second round by the Sacramento Kings with the No. 38 overall pick.