UM's Brazdeikis, Matthews, Poole receive NBA Combine invites

Last month, Michigan’s Ignas Brazdeikis, Charles Matthews and Jordan Poole announced they were entering the NBA Draft.

In a couple weeks, the three Wolverines will be taking the next step of the draft process together.

Brazdeikis, Matthews and Poole each received an invitation to the NBA Combine and will attend the annual pre-draft event in Chicago, their respective agents confirmed to The Detroit News.

The combine will take place from May 14-19 at the Quest Multisport Complex. During the multi-day showcase, prospects will be measured, go through athletic and medical testing, play in five-on-five scrimmages and be interviewed by NBA teams.

Brazdeikis, Matthews and Poole all plan to fully participate at the combine, according to their agents.

Given that Matthews, a redshirt junior, and Poole, a sophomore, have made it known they’ll be staying in the draft, the invite is an indicator they are on NBA teams’ radars and provides a prime chance to improve their draft stock.

Poole and Matthews are ranked No. 55 and No. 60, respectively, in Sports Illustrated’s top 100 prospects and Nos. 68 and 69 in ESPN’s top 100 list. Their draft projections also range from late second round to undrafted.

Brazdeikis, who led Michigan in scoring and was named the Big Ten freshman of the year, appears to have the best chance of the three to be drafted. He’s ranked No. 45 and No. 48 on SI’s and ESPN’s top 100 lists and, depending on the mock draft, his name has appeared as high as the late first round.

However, Brazdeikis hasn’t ruled out a possible return to Michigan and said last month it “wouldn’t make sense” for him to make his final decision before seeing how he fares at the combine.

“At the combine there's a lot,” Brazdeikis said at the time. “There are scrimmages, testing, everything. There are interviews with teams, there are still workouts to happen. There are still a lot of different things that play into this whole decision before I really choose what I want to do."

After the combine wraps up, Brazdeikis will have until May 29 to decide whether he wants to keep his name in the June 20 draft.

The official participant list for the combine has yet to be released by the NBA. Last year, 69 players attended the invite-only event.

jhawkins@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @jamesbhawkins