Rule change should help raise pre-draft camp's profile

	Bucks GM Larry Harris and his colleagues won't get a chance to hold individual workouts with prospects until early June. AP

Normally this time of year Bucks general manager Larry Harris would be spending a few hours each day in his team's practice gym, watching prospects work out in anticipation of the June 28 draft.

This year Harris -- like his colleagues around the league -- is mostly holed up in his office watching film instead. A new NBA rule that prohibits clubs from holding individual player workouts before the league's annual pre-draft camp in Orlando, which will be held May 29-June 4, has meant a change in routine for GMs, coaches and scouts.

"It's kind of strange. It's a little quiet around here," said Harris, whose Bucks have the third-best chance of winning Tuesday's draft lottery. "Normally we might have had about six or seven guys in by now.

"But we're using the time to watch film and do other things in preparation. It really hasn't affected us. I'm more of a believer in having our guys see games and relying on that. The workouts are secondary to me."

It's no secret that the draft has become big business to teams in recent years. Some clubs were bringing in as many as 40-50 prospects for private workouts, depending on how many picks they owned. The cost in terms of time and money was not insignificant, and there were concerns that some teams -- particularly in the Sun Belt -- might have a competitive advantage in getting players to come in for repeated visits early in the process.

Perhaps most of all, there was a feeling that agents were wielding too much influence in terms of directing clients to certain workouts instead of the league's own pre-draft camp. By eliminating this option, it would put teams on more equal footing starting out and make the Orlando camp -- already becoming more and more like the NFL combine each year -- stronger. Plus, the shorter time frame between the pre-draft camp and the draft would lead to better workouts for teams and players.

"The [competition committee] felt the system wasn't working well and that this was better," Magic assistant GM Dave Twardzik said. "You had some guys going to 18 workouts, or some guys who would be working out for their fourth team in four days. At that point, how valid is it going to be? There's a fatigue factor there."

Twardzik said he doubts the change will have any negative impact on the quality of evaluation. Most teams, he said, do enough scouting work during the season. They may have just added a few more college games or international scouting missions to their travel schedule.

"It puts an importance and a premium on doing your work in the winter," Twardzik said. "You have to go out and see more games, and everybody on your staff has to go to see games. We always did that anyhow, but it's a little more now."