We have reached the part of the basketball calendar where “Combine” season begins and players coming primarily from the college system go through a number of evaluation events to see if they could have a future at the NBA level. This season starts with the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament geared towards graduating seniors (where the Gators didn’t have anyone attend) before moving into the G League Elite Camp (the NBA’s developmental G League Combine) before the main event–the NBA Combine.
The order of events is important, as many players attending Portsmouth will hope to earn a last minute invitation to the G League Elite Camp, and players who are at the G League Elite Camp hope to earn one of the final spots in the NBA combine.
Years ago players weren’t allowed to attend combines and maintain their college eligibility, but the change to allow this gives players the opportunity to go, compete against similar talent, gain feedback from teams, and make a decision regarding whether they will head to the pros or return to college.
This year the Gators had two players attend the G League Elite Camp. Will Richard, who has exhausted his eligibility and will look to go pro, and Rueben Chinyelu who has remaining college eligibility and is expected to be back at Florida, though he wanted to get feedback and gauge pro interest.
The first day of the G League Elite Camp saw measurements and athletic testing. Perhaps most notably for the Gators was Rueben Chinyelu’s physical measurements as he came in at 6’10.25” and 251 pounds, with his wingspan coming in at a remarkable 7’7.75”. This puts him at one of the longest recorded wingspans in G League or NBA Combine history, so this was definitely something that people took note of. He also came in with a 9’3.5” standings reach–something even higher than most NBA centers.
In terms of athletic testing, Chinyelu struggled with some of the quick twitch movement drills, posting some of the slower times among frontcourt players in these categories.
Will Richard, on the other end, shined with some of the drills–particularly when it came to shooting.
Most notably, in the “Shooting Off The Dribble” drill, Will Richard hit 27 of 30, placing him right at the top of the leaderboard. This drill consists of players handling the ball on the move to certain spots before pulling up, and his success in this area was somewhat surprising given that he didn’t take a lot of shots off the dribble at Florida.
On day two, players were put into teams where exhibition games then took place. Here are some of the game by game breakdowns of what happened.
The first game saw Rueben Chinyelu start alongside SEC competitors Tamar Bates and Jahmai Mashack. Playing 19 minutes, Chinyelu had 3 points, 8 rebounds, and 5 assists. Struggling to convert around the rim he was 1-6, all on shots relatively in close–an issue that has plagued him in his college career. The rebounding against size and physicality was encouraging, as was the 5 assists he got as a dribble handoff initiator.
In his second game, Chinyelu once again played 19 minutes, this time finishing with 8 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 steals. This time he was able to finish with some powerful dunks as opposed to with layups that spilled off the rim in his first game which allowed him to get some confidence. Notably, he also had 4 steals on the defensive side as he showcased the extreme length that came up in the measurements. On the negative side he also had 4 turnovers as he struggled to make decisions with how fast the tempo of the games were.
Will Richard’s first game saw him play 14 minutes finishing with 3 points, 4 rebounds, and 1 assist. He took just 2 field goal attempts which both came from three-point range, hitting one of them.
In his second game he played 20 minutes, this time finding his shots a little bit more going 2 for 6 from the field finishing with 8 points, 2 rebounds, and 2 assists.
In both games Richard struggled to make anything happen with the dribble which resulted in him giving up the ball early and getting to space on the perimeter where he could be a catch and shoot player, a style that made him pretty quiet in a game much more geared towards volume shooting ball handlers. Defensively he had some good moments as a help defender, though he had some difficulties on the ball against some of the more talented competition.
At the completion of the G League Elite Camp, neither Chinyelu nor Richard was chosen as one of the players that would move on to the main NBA Combine. With that being the case, it is fully expected that Chinyelu will return to Florida, though he will still go through the process of talking to any teams interested before making his decision.
Next the NBA Combine will kick off where the Gators will closely watch the performance of Alex Condon alongside Walter Clayton and Alijah Martin.