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151230_prospect-watch_700 The Prospect Watch is NBAGLeague.com’s weekly ranking of the Top 25 NBA prospects in the NBA’s minor league. New rankings are released each Wednesday during the season. Prospects are ranked based on their appeal as a potential GATORADE Call-Up to NBA teams – their ability to contribute to an NBA team both this season and beyond. At least 30 NBA G League prospects have been called up to the NBA in each of the past five seasons. Past Call-Ups including Miami Heat center Hassan Whiteside, San Antonio Spurs wing Danny Green and Dallas Mavericks guard Seth Curry.

NBA G League 101: How Do Call-Ups Work? | 2016-17 Call-Ups

The Prospect Watch panel for the 2016-17 season includes longtime NBA scouting consultant Ryan Blake, NBA.com national writer Scott Howard-Cooper, former players Kelenna Azubuike and Coleman Collins, and the editors of NBADLeague.com.

MEET THE PANEL

Ryan Blake (@HoopsHighway) has helped direct scouting services for the NBA alongside his late father, Marty, since 1996. He marshals and compiles the complex data necessary for NBA teams to evaluate current and future NBA draft prospects, essentially advising teams who to see, how to see them, and who not to bother seeing. Blake began scouting at the age of 17 under the tutelage of his father, as well as other legendary coaches and scouts. Scott Howard-Cooper (@SHowardCooper) is a writer for NBA.com and a contributor to NBA TV with a focus on the draft and the Hall of Fame. He has covered professional and college basketball since 1988 for many of the largest outlets in the country. >> NBA.com Archive Kelenna Azubuike (@KAzubuike7) is a five-year NBA veteran and current TV analyst for CSN Bay Area. He appeared in 208 career NBA games, all but three of them with the Golden State Warriors, and owns a career scoring average of 10.5 points per game. While with the Dallas Mavericks in 2012, he was assigned to the NBA D-League for seven games with the Texas Legends. He also led Kentucky to two Elite Eight appearances during his three collegiate seasons. Coleman Collins played eight professional seasons and now serves as a freelance writer whose work has been published on various sites, including ESPN.com and the Huffington Post. A four-year starter at Virginia Tech, he went on to play in Germany, Bosnia, France, Ukraine and Bahrain, winning the Bosnian League title in 2012. He also spent the entire 2008-09 season with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, averaging 11.2 points and 5.4 rebounds.

ELIGIBLE PLAYERS

Prospects include any NBA D-League player who is eligible to be called up to the NBA. All prospects, excluding the three Draft Rights Players in this year’s pool (listed below), are free agents who can be signed by any of the 30 NBA teams. These Draft Rights Players, who are under contract with the NBA G League but whose rights are exclusively owned by the NBA team that drafted them, included in 2016-17: Daniel Hamilton (Oklahoma City Thunder), Abdel Nader (Boston Celtics) and Tyrone Wallace (Utah Jazz). Players eligible for the 2017 NBA Draft and players assigned to NBA G League affiliates from NBA teams are not Call-Up-eligible and thus do not qualify for the Prospect Watch. Players must have appeared in at least one game to be considered for Prospect Watch; players inactive or injured during the week are ineligible until they re-appear in a game.

NBA G League 101: NBA Assignments | NBA Draft-Eligible Prospects


THE SCORING SYSTEM

Each week, the five Prospect Watch panelists submit their personal rankings of the Top 25 prospects in the NBA G League.

Each ranking is assigned a point value from 1 to 25, with the No. 1 spot being worth 25 points, the No. 2 spot being worth 24 points and so on through the No. 25 spot (1 point).

Point totals for each player are added up, and the players with the 25 highest scores are ranked from highest total to lowest total each week.

Ties are broken by: 1) Which player appeared on more ballots 2) Which player received the highest individual ranking 3) Which player is ranked higher on NBAGLeague.com's ballot