Thanks to the fact that we have NBA combine data going all the way back to 2000, two years ago I was able to build (with help from Jacob Sutton) a similarity score engine that compares combine participants to each other based on their performance in the various measurements and drills the NBA uses at the combine.
Unfortunately, said similarity score generator only works on the website and doesn't show up in the email version of the newsletter and the back end is still being updated to include this year's prospects so that you all can use it yourselves, but I was still able to run it myself to generate scores for this year's top prospects. (It should hopefully be fully updated this weekend or early next week.)
Before we run through some of the comps for this year's players, I’d like to once again note a few things:
- These comparisons are strictly based on a player’s measurements and athletic testing at the NBA combine. They do not at all account for style of play, production, projected role, draft slot, or really anything other than the data is collected at the combine itself. That’s why you’ll find a diverse array of player archetypes in each list.
- The comparisons account for a player’s height, weight, wingspan, standing reach, lane agility, 3/4-court sprint, shuttle run, bench press (or imputed bench press, as appropriate), standing vertical, and max vertical.
- It is very important to look at the similarity scores themselves. For example, every single one of Darius Acuff's closest comps checks in with a similarity score of 87.38% or higher. Meanwhile, Nathaniel Ament's single-closest comp checks in at only 83.83%. So, factoring in the closeness of the comparison in addition to the identity of the player to whom they are similar is something to take into account.
Got all that? Great. I'm going to post the similarity scores for a bunch of notable players — the projected lottery picks in Sam Vecenie's post-lottery mock draft.
Dybantsa was listed by the NBA as a small forward, which automatically makes him a wing in the bSPARQ database. That makes it fascinating to me that his list of 20 closest comparisons is littered with big men, who make up 15 of the top 20. He's also got five fellow 2026 prospects in his list of comps, including another guy who is considered a consensus top-four player in Caleb Wilson. Dybantsa is actually Wilson's closest comp in the database, as you'll see below. It's also always interesting to see guys like Aaron Gordon, Richard Jefferson, Tyrus Thomas, Carter Bryant, and Josh Smith show up on the comparison list.