Utah State center Neemias Queta gets NBA Combine invite
Nearly a month after declaring his candidacy for the 2019 NBA Draft, Utah State center Neemias Queta received good, but not unexpected, news in the form of an invitation to the 2019 NBA Combine in Chicago.
Official list of players invited to NBA Combine in Chicago next week: pic.twitter.com/66PxlvMNNY
— David Aldridge (@davidaldridgedc) May 8, 2019
The NBA’s annual combine, which will take place May 15-19, pales in grandeur and significance to its NFL counterpart (top draft pick regularly skip the entire thing and many invites go late in the draft or not at all), but for a player in Queta’s situation, any chance for exposure could skyrocket his draft stock.
It’s not as if there wasn’t any buzz surrounding Queta’s professional prospects. Multiple outlets pegged the Portuguese big man as one of the more underrated G5 prospects. And when ESPNU broadcast Utah State’s 71-55 win over New Mexico, the commentators spent a decent chunk of the game lauding Queta’s NBA stock. The problem is most of that talk from national sources centered around Queta likely staying in college for another year to develop his game. Few expected him to declare this year.
As of May 8, only a handful of mock drafts have Queta on their radar. None of the mocks from Bleacher Report (first round only), NBADraft.net (1-60), ESPN (top 100 ranked), and NBA Draft Room (1-60 plus 29 “on the bubble” players) include Queta as a draft pick — and all have been updated since he declared for the draft.
Right now, the two most relevant mock drafts that include Queta are SI.com (29th overall to the Spurs) and Walter Football (34th to the 76ers).
The combine will be a good place to change that. Getting in front of scouts who have never seen the 6-foot-11 man in person and allowing them to witness his athleticism and skill up close and personal could make all the difference in the world. Follow that up with good workouts for individual NBA teams and the June 20 draft could be a superb day for Neemias Queta.