With all the buzz surrounding two NBA draft prospects out of BYU, AJ Dybantsa and Richie Saunders, it's great to have a player pull back the curtain and outline some of what actually goes on during the pre-draft process. For Dybantsa, who is projected to be taken in the top 2 in some order with Kansas' Darryn Peterson, pre-draft workouts and interviews can be the difference-maker for a franchise on the fence.
For Richie Saunders, a player who has been floating around in the second round, the pre-draft process is crucial for maximizing your draft value and selling potential suitors on what you can bring to a team at the highest level.
Saunders' job only got harder with his ACL tear, limiting him from physical activity and traditional workouts.
But a player who knows all about the NBA Draft process, Egor Demin, laid his whole experience out in an interview with former teammates Trevin Knell and Dawson Baker. Demin had an excellent rookie season in Brooklyn and worked his way up to a top-10 selection despite some uncertainty about his skill set at the next level, so if anybody knows what's going through the head of his fellow BYU alumni in the pre-draft process, it's him.
NBA pre draft process is insane. Lots of hard work and you don’t know what it means til you get drafted pic.twitter.com/4rCux9aAmO
— Center Street Media (@CenterStMedia) June 6, 2026
"I did with the Jazz, I did their very famous three-minute drill," Egor started, with former Coug Trevin Knell nodding in understanding. "The thing is, when I was doing that drill -- I was doing it every day -- at some point I'm like, 'I'm good'. I had to run 27 courts in three minutes. They asked me, 'We heard you've done it; what's your score?' I said thirty. They said, 'Oh, your court has got to be short.' I ran 25."
If you think the craziness surrounding AJ Dybantsa and the Wizards' uncertainty with the number-one pick is gut-wrenching, Egor explained that he had zero idea where he could be drafted, because he was given a range of 5 to 25. Thankfully, Demin would be picked by the Nets 8th overall, because there are few worse feelings for an NBA prospect than seeing your name slide down the draft order.
"It's a 3-on-3 workout," Demin recalled from what he calls his worst workout. "We have this guy with me on the workout -- I'll say he's a big guy. We had a little conflict during the practice, because we'd been playing 3-on-3 and I was guarding the point guard. [...] So I'm guarding on the pick and roll, and this biggest guy keeps throwing knees like 'boom boom', and I'm like do not do that man, I've got another four workouts."
"We start talking, and people are a little uncomfortable around us. [...] That's something they actually look at. I would say they look at this more than actually basketball. [...] I end up going through his chest with two hands, two elbows. It was a bit more of a silent moment, but I was pissed. [...] We're good now."
You can watch the full 40-minute interview here, from Center Street Media.
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