Troy Bell better than the rest

[Peter Delevett <pdelevett@xxxxxxxxx>]

Here's an interesting Insider article. Though Lesson
One of the Kedrick Brown Project is that athleticism
ain't everything, Ainge has spoken of making the team
more athletic. And note that Ainge's boy Hansen made
the top 10. I would not be at all shocked if Ainge
swings a deal for him. 

Derrick Zimmerman, a PG the Celts have had in for
workouts, also fared well here. If the C's pick up a
second rounder, he could be an option. I was glad to
see Boston working out David West and Josh Howard,
either of whom would be a fine pick.

Too bad about Brian Cook doing poorly on this, he's
another guy I think could help the Celts. Collison's
body fat was also higher than you'd expect.


-----

By Chad Ford
NBA Insider
Send an Email to Chad Ford  Monday, June 16
Updated: June 16
2:02 PM ET  


Results of the physcical testing done at the NBA's
Chicago combine are in, and Boston College's Troy Bell
is at the top of the list.


Insider obtained an exclusive copy of the confidential
report this weekend.

Among all players tested, Bell ranked second in
vertical jump (41 inches), second in the 3/4-court run
(3.06 seconds) and bench pressed the 185-pound bar an
impressive 17 times. His combined total score of
299.0477 ranked him far and away the best athlete in
the draft. The next closest player was Ohio's Brandon
Hunter who scored 290.1428.

Ball State's Theron Smith, Wisconsin's Kirk Penney,
Texas Tech's Andre Emmett, San Diego's Jason Keep,
Mississippi State's Derrick Zimmerman, Washington Doug
Wrenn, Cincinnati's Donald Little and BYU's Travis
Hansen rounded out the top 10.

Of the top prospects tested, Dwyane Wade finished
14th, Kirk Hinrich 20th, Josh Howard 22nd, Carmelo
Anthony 38th, Darko Milicic 41st, T.J. Ford 44th,
Chris Kaman 45th, Chris Bosh 51st, Nick Collison 54th,
David West 61st, Luke Ridnour 63rd, Brian Cook 68th,
Mike Sweetney 70th and Pavel Podkolzine 76th.

While NBA teams don't rely on combine results to
nearly the extent that NFL teams do, it can be an
important factor in the draft process. 

  
Troy Bell registered high scores in most phases of the
NBA combine. 
Here are a few interesting facts from each category:

Bench Press: San Diego's Keep set a Chicago record
with 27 repetitions of the 185-pound bar. Smith and
Hunter came in a close second with 25 reps each.
DePaul's Sam Hoskin, Wisconsin's Uche Nsonwu-Amadi,
Florida's Matt Bonner and Georgetown's Wesley Wilson
were the only other players to raise the bar 20 times
or more.

Among the top prospects taking the test, Kaman lifted
the bar an impressive 15 times. Darko did 13 reps,
West 11, Hinrich 10, Wade and Bosh had nine each, and
Carmelo Anthony had seven. Cook could only press the
bar six times; Podkolzine had five; Wake Forest's
Howard had four; Sweetney had a shockingly low three
reps (maybe he isn't the next Elton Brand after all);
and Ford and Ridnour couldn't manage to get one rep.

One important correction. The early report Insider
obtained on the combine results had Nick Collison
doing only four reps. That was inaccurate. According
to the official NBA report, Collison lifted the bar
eight times.

Vertical Jump: LSU's Ronald Dupree recorded the
highest vertical jump at 41.5 inches. Washington's
Doug Wrenn and Bell were the only other two athletes
to record 40-inch vertical jumps.

T.J. Ford had a big-time 39.5-inch jump. Duke's
Dahntay Jones, N.C. State's Josh Powell and Detroit's
Willie Green also recorded jumps of better than 38
inches.

Among the top prospects taking the test, Ford had the
highest jump at 39.5 inches. Wade recorded a 35-inch
jump, Howard reached 36.5, Hinrich and Anthony went
33.5, Bosh and Collison 33, Darko and Ridnour 32.5,
West and Sweetney 31.5 and Kaman 30.5. Below that Cook
had a 29, and Podkolzine reached just 22.5.

Lane Agility: Wisconsin's Penney led the field with a
time of 10.44 seconds. Wade (10.56), Jason Gardner
(10.66) and Jameer Nelson (10.66) also had great
scores in the drill.

Among the top prospects taking the test, Wade had the
best score at 10.56 seconds. Howard finsished in
10.89, Hinrich in 10.98, Ridnour 11.0, Darko 11.3 and
Kaman 11.33. The rest: Anthony clocked in at 11.4,
Ford at 11.45, Collison at 11.62, Bosh at 11.8, Cook
at 11.87, West at 12.18, Sweetney at 12.9 and
Podkolzine at 13.4.

3/4-Court Sprint: Penney again led the field with a
time of 3.04 seconds. Bell finished second at 3.06,
Weber State's Jermaine Boyette finished third at 3.07
and Wade and Utah's Britton Johnsen finsished in 3.07.

Among the top prospects taking the test, Wade had the
best score at 3.08 seconds. Howard finished in 3.09
seconds, Hinrich in 3.1, Anthony 3.15, Ford 3.2,
Collison and Sweetney in 3.28, Bosh 3.3, Darko 3.36,
Kaman 3.37, West 3.43, Cook 3.45 and Podkolzine
finished at 3.8.

Body fat: An interesting statistic is the body fat
measurement the NBA takes. The average body fat of all
the players tested was 9.64 percent. Chris Marcus
threw things off quite a bit when he measured a hefty
23.1 percent body fat. Here's a few other guys who
could use a diet:

James Lang was at a killer 21.4 percent. Collison
recorded 17 percent body fat. Kaman measured 16.3
percent. Sweetney was at 14.1 percent. And for those
worried that Anthony looks a bit on the heavy side, he
measured in at just 8 percent body fat. Not too
shabby.

What does all this mean? It's no surprise that of the
top prospects, the two best athletes -- Wade and
Hinrich -- are also on fire as far as their draft
prospects go. The bottom four -- Podkolzine, Sweetney,
Cook and Ridnour -- have some explaining to do. It's
pretty easy to explain away Podkolzine and Sweetney.
Podkolzine tested just a day off the plane and had
literally never been through most of those drills in
his life. Sweetney has not hired an agent and spent
his time at Georgetown working out there. In other
words, neither of these guys has been at Tim Grover's
A.T.T.A.C.K. Athletics or IMG preparing for the event.
Cook and Ridnour have been working out, however, and
their relative lack of athleticism will come back to
hurt their draft stock in the end.

Among the surprises? Darko appears to be just as
athletic as Carmelo. That will shock a lot of people.
Ford doesn't appear to be quite as fast as he has been
rumored to be. Kaman is a better athlete than people
think And Bosh? His results were pretty lackluster.

The two guys to watch are Bell and Hansen. They were
the only guys on the first-round bubble to finish in
the Top 10 athletically. Their strong finish should
help both of their causes.

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