2012 NBA Draft: Combine Measurements Go Official, Now Things Get Real Interesting

Update: The 2012 data has now been added to DraftExpress' measurement history database.

The NBA Draft Combine is ongoing, but Friday saw the release of official measurements for the many prospects taking part. It's easy to overlook these numbers as superfluous or overrated, especially with the ongoing "positional revolution" that says it doesn't matter how tall you are, as long as you can play. But there's also some blowback to that blowback, and to ignore the infamous combine measurements is to ignore a key piece of information that NBA GMs are sure to consider in their evaluation process. Tall is tall, and in basketball, taller is better.

For a quick check of the official measurements, check out these two pictures courtesy of ESPN's Chad Ford:

Quincy Acy - Meyers Leonard

Damian Lillard - Tyler Zeller

Some notables:

• Meyers Leonard, Fab Melo, and Tyler Zeller were the only players to hit the 7 foot mark in shoes, with Leonard taking the Tallest Man Award with a 7' 1.25" measurement.
• Terrence Jones measured out at a very solid 6'9.5" in shoes with a 7'2.25" wingspan, allaying fears that he was undersized for a PF. Oh yeah, he's also 252 pounds.
• Andre Drummond recorded the longest wingspan (7'6.25") and apparently brought his disco platform shoes--he measured just short of 7' in shoes by two inches shorter in socks (6'9.75").
• Presumptive number one pick measured out as expected: 6'10.5" in shoes with a massive 7'5.5" wingspan.
• Jeremy Lamb's wingspan wasn't quite the freakish 7'1" that it had been rumored, but 6'11" is still quite impressive for a guy standing 6'4" in socks and 6'5.25" in shoes.
• Austin Rivers got a boost when he more or less matched Lamb's height numbers (6'4" / 6'5"), though his wingspan isn't quite so freakish (6'7.25"). Still, those numbers should help him fend off prior concerns about his lack of SG size.
• Tu Holloway missed the 6 foot mark by a quarter inch.
• Andrew Nicholson and Royce White have very large hands, including a crazy 11.5" width for White.
• Wisconsin PG Jordan Taylor measured at 6' 2", which is certainly workable, but nobody's gonna be throwing the word "length" around his scouting report.
• Marquette's Darius Johnson-Odom and Jae Crowder are both going to have to wow teams in other ways after measuring below their ideal position. The good news for Crowder (6'4.75" barefoot) is that he measured an inch taller than a couple weeks ago at the Nets combine.

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