Funderburk Left Off NBA Combine Candidate List
The chances that D.J. Funderburk will be back at NC State for his senior season increased exponentially Monday when the senior forward was left off the list of potential participants for the NBA's pre-draft combine.
The list, obtained by USAToday's Bryan Kalbrosky, includes 105 players determined by a vote of the NBA's 30 teams. The list could eventually be cut to just 70, depending on when, where, and if the Combine actually takes place.
The Combine was originally scheduled for May 21-24 in Chicago, but was called off because of the coronavirus pandemic and has yet to be rescheduled.
Underclassmen that have not yet hired an agent have until August 3 to withdraw from the draft and retain their college eligibility.
Although participation in the Combine won't guarantee a player's selection in the draft, the opportunity to perform in front of general managers and scouts can greatly enhance his chances -- especially for a marginal prospect, such as Funderburk, hoping to sneak into the end of the second round.
Funderburk has been quiet throughout the longer-than-usual NBA predraft process and has given no indication as to which way he's leaning. But a soclal media post that showed him participating with his teammates as the Wolfpack began summer workouts last week raised hopes that he's planning to return.
"My decision will most likely be decided on what teams need from me," Funderburk said in a recent interview with Jeff Gravley of State's official website GoPack.com "First of all, what their evaluation of me is. Do they think I could potentially be drafted this year? If not, what kind of contracts could I run into if I was not to get drafted.
"I don't want to just say forget school and try to go get money right now, especially in the world we're living in right now. So I want to make sure I could at least finish college because I'm so close to graduating. I don't want to leave in a halfway situation and be thinking I could have gone back to school and improved on this, this and this."
The 6-foot-10 Ohio ranked second on the Wolfpack in scoring and rebounding last season at 12.8 points and 6.1 boards per game while shooting 60.9% from the floor. He was especially effective over the second half of the season after moving to power forward in a lineup that featured fellow big man Manny Bates.
While Funderburk didn’t make the list, former State recruit Josh Hall did.
Among the others included in the 105 potential Combine participants are Duke's Cassius Stanley, Tre Jones and Vernon Carey, North Carolina's Cole Anthony, Louisville's Jordan Nwora and Steven Enoch, Florida state's Devin Vassell and Patrick Williams, Syracuse's Elijah Hughes and Virginia's Mamadi Diakite.
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