Terrapin Station
Fansided

Maryland Basketball: Four Terps invited to NBA Combine

By John Raderman

Feb 21, 2016; College Park, MD, USA; Maryland Terrapins forward Robert Carter (4) celebrates with guard Rasheed Sulaimon (0) and guard Melo Trimble (2) after scoring during the first half against the Michigan Wolverines at Xfinity Center. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 21, 2016; College Park, MD, USA; Maryland Terrapins forward Robert Carter (4) celebrates with guard Rasheed Sulaimon (0) and guard Melo Trimble (2) after scoring during the first half against the Michigan Wolverines at Xfinity Center. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports /
facebooktwitterreddit

The Maryland basketball team could have several representatives in the NBA next season.

According the the Washington Post, four Terrapins are invited to attend the NBA Draft Combine, which takes place from May 11-15 NBA in Chicago. Robert Carter, Jake Layman, Diamond Stone, and Melo Trimble. Of those four, only Trimble has the option to return to College Park next season because he hasn’t hired an agent.

The NBA Draft Combine is not as big of a deal as its NFL equivalent. It certainly serves a purpose, but it isn’t an end-all evaluation of a player like the NFL can be. In 2014, Joel Embiid, Jabari Parker, and Andrew Wiggins all decided to skip it since they figured it could only hurt their draft potential. Out of the three, only Embiid has yet to make an impact at the NBA level due to a foot injury.

The NBA Draft Combine has a battery of tests and drills: athletic (speed, vertical jump, and so on), anthropometric (height, weight, etc.), five-on five scrimmages, shooting, and team interviews to name a few. Not every player takes part in every test.

Stone is currently projected to be the top pick of Maryland’s four (Draft Express places him as the 22nd pick in the draft), and he probably won’t have many surprises to offer at the combine. An uneven freshman season showed everyone that Stone is a tremendous offensive talent, but he didn’t display the rebounding skills or defensive acumen you would expect from a top NBA pick.

Live Feed

The Utah Jazz have one roster spot left for camp, who gets it?
The Utah Jazz have one roster spot left for camp, who gets it? /

The J-Notes

  • Maryland basketball: Former Terrapin Diamond Stone linked in FBI probeBusting Brackets

    • As such, he’s a “project” pick at the moment, a high-upside player that won’t contribute much their first or second season. That’s not an awful place to be, but Stone would be in a much better position if he could convince everyone that he could contribute his rookie season.

    Unfortunately, there are not a lot of opportunities at the combine to show he’s more developed than his reputation suggests. Possibly, the five-on-five scrimmages, but it’s not very likely. If he shows he can perform well without much preparation against top-tier talent, that would do a lot to assuage fears.

    Since he’s not guaranteed to get drafted, Carter has to take every opportunity to impress people. The Combine will give him a chance to get noticed, but a player like him will be hard pressed to make waves.

    The majority of the combine is tests of skills and athleticism. Carter shoots well enough, but he’s a bit lacking in most other categories. His size, speed, and strength are good for a college player, but I suspect he’ll measure as average to below-average for an NBA big man.

    Like Stone, he’ll have a chance to impress in the scrimmages, but he’s a far more developed player than Stone. Teams will expect to see offensive and defensive skills, not just potential.

    The Combine does offer Carter one great way to move up in the draft. He’s good in interviews, so when teams come to talk to him, he might be able to snag a bunch of invites to their training camps. The more invites he gets, the more opportunities he’ll have to find a system where he flourishes.

    Out of any Maryland player in this draft, Layman has the most to gain from the combine. His stock is on the rise after an impressive close to his college career, and the Combine offers him a multitude of opportunities to show off his impressive athleticism and skill set.

    His first order of business will need to be convincing everyone that he has enough basketball IQ to figure out an NBA system, preferably in less than the three and a half years it took him at Maryland. That should be made easier by the fact that he’s young for a Senior (he only just turned 22 last month) and is still maturing mentally.

    If that criteria is met, I would not be surprised to see him move up substantially in the draft. Draft Express places him as the 45th best player this year, but I think he could go in the first round if all the right pieces fall into place.

    Since he’s still deciding whether to stay or go, Trimble is likely approaching the Combine from a different perspective. He not only needs to make an impression, but he also need to gauge where he is in relation to the field.

    Like Carter, I don’t think Trimble is the most impressive physical specimen, but the shooting drills should give him a good opportunity to show that his shooting slump from last season was an aberration. Scrimmages will also be beneficial, giving him a good chance to show how well he can run an offense and make decisions. If he shows those skills, it won’t matter how well he runs and jumps.

    As for Trimble’s competition, he’ll have a front row seat to determine how he stacks up against them. Personally, I’d like to see him come back for another year, but that’s for purely selfish reasons.

    Next: Recapping where each Terp landed in the NFL Draft

    The truth is that if Trimble thinks he can go in the first round, he’s likely gone. The money is just too good to pass up. Either way, he has until May 25 to decide.