NBA News Wire

Report: NBA combine to include five-on-five

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Five-on-five competition is returning to the NBA Draft Combine next year.

The league considered a proposal from its competition committee and decided to return to a format similar to the pre-draft camp that was discontinued in 2009, ESPN.com reported Friday.

For the past five years, players were put mostly through shooting and ball-handling skills drills, which prompted NBA teams to complain about a lack of scrimmage-type action to evaluate the talent.

The pre-draft camps held in Orlando, Fla., and Chicago before 2009 were abandoned when an increasing number of players failed to participate. But in the past few years, a number of players have declined to engage in the drills portion of the combine.

Top picks Andrew Wiggins, Jabari Parker and Joel Embiid bypassed the combine this summer.

Many of the top players still are unlikely to participate in the five-on-five competition at the combine, but NBA evaluators will be better able to assess those who do come to play in the five-on-five games and skills drills.