durant's talent was unmatched in that draft. his measurements were amazing, the rest of his athletic numbers were good. so he failed at one test but was great everywhere else. players stock does rise and fall with these combine results. suppose there is a group of equally talented players who play the same position. one of them tests less athletic than the rest. if that is the only difference between the group (similar talent and size) then this player's stock falls past the rest of the group. even if its a small group of 3 players, letting your stock fall below 2 players of the same position could mean a drop of 5 or more spots in the draft because not every team will be looking for a player at that position. now look at this years draft. tons of lotto worthy big men, and even more bigs in the mid-late first round means there is a lot of room to drop.
Hayward tested out fine, actually, his max vert is not great but his standing vert is actually higher than, for example, Babbitt's and his other numbers are comparable. Frankly, the way I view the test results is that for the most part, as long as a player isn't alarmingly bad, the results don't matter as much as other parts of a player's package.
well if you have 2 or 3 guys at the same position that are seemingly bunched together, this can be a difference maker. for a guy like aminu who is thought of as a guy who uses his athleticism to succeed, testing below average in some key drills is a big blow. on the other hand a guy like babbitt, who scouts questioned where he could play in the nba, proved to be as quick as the wing players, and as strong as the post players. proving either one would've been sufficient in giving him a position as a 3 or a 4... but proving both bumped his stock way up.
How can he be as quick as wing players when he scored below average for the agility drill in draft with a lot of big man prospects? Dude's slow as molasses. NBA isn't a trackmeet. Straight line speed won't matter when you can't shift gears to the left or to the right.
did you actually read through the results? the LANE AGILITY average was 11:60... he scored a 10:98... BELOW average. he was faster than: al farouq aminu (SF), james anderson (SG), avery bradley (PG), gordon hayward (SF), xavier henry (SG), amron johnson (PG), wesley johnson (SF), evan turner (SG), terrico white (SG), and all of the PF's and C's of course.
