The Vertical Front-Office Insider Bobby Marks, a 20-year executive with the Nets, goes behind the scenes on how predraft workouts are organized, the challenges teams face and the power of agents during the process.

Putting the list together

Compiling the list of players to bring in for a predraft workout is like putting a jigsaw puzzle together. The initial list is put together in late April and tweaked throughout May.



The players a team targets is identified by the personnel department, which makes different lists of prospects: players in draft range, potential trade targets, D-League candidates, local prospects and a wish list. The trade targets and wish-list players are often the most challenging to bring in for a workout.

The local prospects are the most valuable because of their availability when there is a last-minute cancellation.

Teams are permitted to have six players on the court at one time and no more than 12 players can be brought in each day. The challenge teams face is matching up players by position and projected draft range. In a perfect world, lottery talent would face off against lottery talent, but workouts are often a mixed bag of projected first-, second-round and undrafted prospects. Also, players represented by the same agency will not work out against each other.

Dialogue with agents

A team first calls a player’s agent to set up a visit.



Agents will determine when a player will visit and often what other players will compete against him. It is not uncommon for an agent to give teams a list of players with whom his client would like to work out. In the case of Ben Simmons and Brandon Ingram, each player will make team visits but will likely not compete in a three-on-three setting.

View photos Brandon Ingram at the NBA draft lottery. (AP) More

There are also circumstances in which an agent will pass on having his client visit a team.

The representatives of Kris Dunn are working to place their client with a team that does not have depth at point guard, even if that means Dunn could fall a few slots in the draft.

Last season, Justise Winslow bypassed visiting the Sacramento Kings. Although the Kings were picking seventh overall, Winslow’s representatives felt that Sacramento was not the best fit for him. Winslow eventually slid to the Heat at No. 10.

Agents can also overestimate where their clients will be drafted.

Teams and agents often have differing views of where a player will be drafted. In 2011, the agent of MarShon Brooks bypassed the Nets during the draft workout process because he thought his client was a late-lottery talent. Brooks eventually slid to No. 25 overall, with the Nets trading for him.

Finalizing the workout

Teams will have agents on speed dial when it comes to finalizing the draft workout. Starting in early May and leading up to the day of the draft, teams will operate on seven-day workweeks based on the availability of prospects.



The first piece of the puzzle is getting a prospect to commit. The second piece is filling out the workout with prospects within the same skill level.

Because players have been scouted heavily in five-on-five settings, the goal for the team is to get a player in their gym to get to know him better.

The interactions with the coaching staff, the interview and the psych testing will outweigh playing three-on-three.

Story continues