-We only count 62 players on this list so far…meaning there will be two more players in attendance. We’ll let you know who they are as soon as we get in.
-Comparing between our initial list posted a few days ago and the official one we see now, we can notice a few players who seem to have pulled out. Glen Davis and Sean Williams. We can’t see how Boggan possibly pulled out, so he very well could have been snubbed…we’ll find out.
-I know a few people who are going to be up in arms over Denver Nuggets head coach George Karl’s son Coby receiving an invite for the second straight season over some first-team All-Conference types from high major schools, for example Adam Haluska.
-What seems to have happened here is that the NBA started off by only inviting around 10-11 players initially, telling the others (like Acie Law, Nick Young and Josh McRoberts) that they need to participate. Once that became evident--possibly from pressure from NBA teams who needed at the very least to see these top prospects all go through a comprehensive physical—quite a few more names were added.
-Since these are supposed to be the top prospects in the draft (besides Tiago Splitter, Rudy Fernandez and Ante Tomic who are still playing in Europe and cannot attend), it’s a good exercise to compare our mock draft to the top-19 players invited. Doing so, we find that all of the top 22 players on our mock draft (besides the three European-based prospects noted above) will be here. That tells us that we at least seem to be on the right track when it comes to the identity of the top prospects in the NBA draft.
-The next three American players on our mock draft who were left off the physical only list and are not on the pre-draft roster are Marcus Williams, Morris Almond and Derrick Byars. There is a very valid case to be made that all of them should be here in Orlando playing at the pre-draft camp.
-It’s interesting to note that Javaris Crittenton pulled out of playing at the camp last week and was moved to the physical-only. That doesn’t always end up happening, but the NBA did the right thing in bringing him in.
-This is often seen by some as an early indication of which players might be invited to the Green Room in Madison Square Garden on the 28th. Of the 12 players listed, the only player missing from the lottery of our mock draft is Yi Jianlian (quite understandable), and Nick Young, who is ranked 14th on the mock (they can’t all get in after all.)
