NBA Draft 2016: Full List of Combine Participants and Clipper Targets

Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress.com put together a list of all of the prospects eligible for the draft, sorted by their combine decisions: declined, unable to attend, attending, and not invited.

The most notable portion of the list are the three players who declined invitations: Ben Simmons (SF/PF-Louisiana State), Domantas Sabonis (PF/C-Gonzaga), and Dejounte Murray (PG/SG-Washington).  Givony expects that these players want to better control their landing spot, and avoiding the combine keeps measurements and health information away from every team.  Then, the players can choose which teams to work out for, and which medical staffs to undergo physicals with.  Givony says that it's common for top prospects like Simmons to do this, especially before the lottery selection order is set. Anthony Bennett, Andrew Wiggins, and Karl Anthony-Towns all also declined invitations.

Sabonis is one of my favorite players in the draft and I'd be ecstatic if he slid to the Clippers at 25.  He's a skilled big who can play both PF and C, and I've seen him projected to go in the late teens and early 20s.  With tons of other bigs projected in the 20s, it would be easy for him to slide if he limits the teams that he works out for.

Givony notes that bunch of notable European prospects will be missing the combine due to their longer-stretching international seasons.  Among them are projected 3rd overall pick Dragan Bender (PF-Maccabi Tel Aviv), stud euro wings Timothe Luwalu (SF-Mega Leks) and Furkan Korkmaz (SG/SF-Anadolu Efes).  The international prospects in the Clippers' range who will not be attending are Ivica Zubac (C-Mega Leks), Ante Zizic (C-Cibona Zagreb), Juan Hernangomez (SF/PF-Estudiantes), Petr Cornelie (PF-Le Mans), Isaia Cordinier (SG-Denain), and Paul Zipser (SF-Bayern Muenchen).  Zhou Qi (C-Xinjiang) will attend the combine.  The Clippers pick at 25 and 33 and we'll likely see most of those names go off the board between 20 and 40.

Notable wing players coming from the NCAA that are projected in the Clippers' range are Taurean Prince (SF-Baylor), Malik Beasley (SG-Florida St.), DeAndre Bremby (SF-St. Joseph's), Patrick McCaw (SG-UNLV), and Malcolm Brogdon (SG-Virginia).  All of them will be attending the combine.  The NCAA bigs that are projected in the Clippers' range (aside from Sabonis) are Damian Jones (C-Vanderbilt), Diamond Stone (C-Maryland), Stephen Zimmerman (C-UNLV), Brice Johnson (PF-North Carolina), Chieck Diallo (PF/C-Kansas), and A.J. Hammons (C-Purdue).  All will attend the combine, along with prep-to-pro prospect Thon Maker (C-Orangeville Prep).

I'd expect the Clippers to target a SF and a big man with their two picks.  The small forward position has long been and remains the Clippers' biggest long-term need, and whether Cole Aldrich leaves in free agency or not, extra depth and youth down low would be welcome.  With C.J. Wilcox and Branden Dawson already on the roster, I wouldn't be entirely shocked if the Clippers decided to use one of the picks on a European player that could be stashed, even if it's not typical Clipper style.

For now, we wait.  In 10 days, we will be past the combine and find out the winners and losers of the NBA lottery, and after that draft talk will heat up with more detailed and regular mocks.  We'll also get more details in the coming weeks about which prospects the Clippers work out, and how those workouts seem to go, all leading up to the draft, which is still over a month away.

Malik Pope (SF-San Diego State) and Isaiah Briscoe (PG-Kentucky) are two players that have been reported to work have workouts with the Clippers.  Both are in DraftExpress' top 100, but not projected to be selected.  Neither has been invited to the combine as of now.

A number of top seniors from the NCAA have missed out on combine invites due to a new rule extending the deadline to withdraw from the draft, allowing underclassmen to participate in the combine before deciding whether to return to school or not.  Some top seniors who are currently not slotted in for combine spots are Prince Ibeh (C-Texas), Sheldon McClellan (SG-Miami), Damion Lee (SF-Louisville), and Yogi Ferrell (PG-Indiana).  All four are projected by DraftExpress to be picked in the second round.