Chicago will host the 2026 AWS NBA Draft Combine from May 10-17, giving the league’s top nba draft prospects a week to prove where they belong. The event will bring skills drills, scrimmages, official measurements and meetings with NBA team officials into one compressed stretch that can shape the weeks before the draft.
The combine comes with a clear recent precedent. Last year, 75 prospects took part, and every player who became a lottery pick in the 2025 NBA Draft went through it, including Cooper Flagg, Dylan Harper, VJ Edgecombe, Kon Knueppel and Ace Bailey, the top five picks. That is why Chicago matters again this spring: the combine has become one of the few places where front offices can compare the same players side by side, under the same conditions, before the draft board starts to harden.
This year’s pool could be larger. Seventy-one players filed as early-entry candidates for the 2026 NBA Draft, and that number gives the league room for a deeper field if invitees follow the pattern set last year. For the prospects, the process is exacting. Hand length, hand width, height without shoes, body fat percentage, standing reach, weight and wingspan will all be measured. After a dynamic warm-up, players will go through a no-step vertical jump, maximum vertical jump, pro lane drill, three-quarter court sprint and lane shuttle drill.
Shooting work is just as structured. Players are required to complete every shooting drill directed by the NBA, with four baskets used for the session. They shoot from three locations from the right wing through the top-left wing, taking 10 shots at each stop while alternating dribble direction on each attempt. Optional live action offense-vs.-defense drills are available after warmups in three categories, giving evaluators one more chance to see how prospects perform when the pace changes.
The combine also reaches beyond athletic testing. NBA providers conduct biomechanics and isometric strength assessments, while in-person medical screening, medical history review with orthopedic and sports medicine physicians, blood draw for lab tests and DEXA scans are part of the schedule. Those steps follow a virtual intake before the combine, when an orthopedic physician reviews medical history information ahead of the trip to Chicago.
That medical file matters as much as the numbers in the gym. The combine has become more than a check-in point for nba draft prospects; it is where teams can match measurements, athletic testing and medical information against what they saw during the season. For players, the week is part proving ground and part sorting machine, and what happens there often helps determine who moves up and who waits longer on draft night.
