A Decade of Preparing Basketball’s Next Generation for the NBA Draft
Darius Acuff Jr. with Coach Packie Turner
4 minute read
Andrea Aruino
For the past decade, UPBasketball’s Coach Packie Turner has spent each spring in Santa Barbara, training college-aged athletes as they prepare for the NBA Draft and Summer League. Over the years, Turner has worked with some of basketball’s biggest names, including OKC’s 2025 NBA Champion Jalen Williams, along with Denver’s Aaron Gordon and Christian Braun, who helped lead the Nuggets to an NBA Championship in 2023. While the list of notable athletes continues to grow, pre-draft training is an opportunity to invest his energy into developing the next generation of talent.
Every year, Turner returns to Santa Barbara to work alongside WME Basketball, helping NBA Draft prospects prepare for the combine, team workouts, and ultimately draft night itself. From April to May, these athletes spend their early mornings and afternoons inside the gym, committing themselves to an intense six to eight weeks built around development, repetition, and preparation. With sessions running six days a week, individual workouts, group sessions, and recovery periods carefully built into their schedules, the goal is to maximize every day in one of the most important stretches of their basketball careers.
Before training even starts, Turner studies film, statistics, shot profiles, tendencies, and offensive habits to understand how each athlete plays. Examining how frequently a player operates in pick-and-roll situations, where their shots come from, and identifying NBA players with similar roles and skillsets, all goes into creating individualized plans for every athlete entering the program.
NBA teams are not only evaluating talent during workouts; they are evaluating conditioning, response to adversity, consistency, and competitiveness. Because of that, Turner says pre-draft training requires a level of volume and detail many players have never experienced before.
“We do more in 90 minutes than they’ve ever done before,” Turner said. “The amount of volume, repetition, speed, detail – that’s probably the separator.”
Although physical development remains a large part of the process, Turner believes confidence may be just as important. Many of these athletes are only months away from achieving a lifelong goal while simultaneously dealing with evaluations, expectations, and uncertainty. Because of this, Turner says one of the biggest challenges is helping players improve without disrupting the confidence that got them there.
Jaden Bradley
“We want to work on things, but we don’t want to strip confidence. That's the art form of what I have to do to blend in telling them ‘you're amazing at this, but we can be even better,’” Coach Turner said.
Another large component of the program is data that includes shot tracking and performance metrics, which give players measurable ways to see growth while also informing coaches how to shape future workouts. By the end of pre-draft training, players can accumulate anywhere from 16,000 to 30,000 tracked shots, giving both athletes and NBA teams tangible evidence of development.
“These guys have worked their whole lives for this moment. They’re this close to achieving their dream and you get to help them during that part of their journey.” Coach Turner said.
This year’s pre-draft group features another collection of highly accomplished players preparing for that next step.
Leading the group is Arkansas guard Darius Acuff Jr., who enters the draft process following one of the most impressive freshman seasons in recent college basketball. Acuff averaged 23.5 points and 6.4 assists while helping lead the Razorbacks to a 28-win season. He became one of the few players in Southeastern Conference (SEC) history to earn both Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year honors during the same season.
Cameron Carr arrives after a breakout year at Baylor, where the sophomore guard averaged nearly 19 points per game while emerging as one of the conference’s most explosive scorers. After starting every game for the Bears, Carr earned All-Big 12 recognition while putting together one of the strongest scoring seasons by a sophomore in program history.
Houston freshman Chris Cenac Jr. enters pre-draft training after quickly establishing himself as one of the Cougars’ most important frontcourt players. Cenac led Houston in rebounding during his first collegiate season while consistently producing double-digit rebounding performances.
Dailyn Swain heads into the process after a strong season at Texas. He averaged over 17 points per game and showcased his versatility as both a scorer and facilitator. His ability to impact multiple areas of the game has helped establish him as one of the more complete guards in this class.
Arizona guard Jaden Bradley comes into the pre-draft following one of the most decorated seasons of his career. Bradley earned Big 12 Player of the Year honors while continuing to establish himself as one of college basketball’s most experienced and reliable guards.
Ryan Conwell joins the group after leading Louisville’s offense during his senior season. The veteran guard averaged nearly 19 points per game while continuing a collegiate career that finished just shy of 2,000 career points.
Billy Richmond III
Billy Richmond III returns after another productive season at Arkansas where he continued developing into one of the team’s most versatile players. Known for his defensive impact and ability to play multiple positions, Richmond earned SEC All-Defensive recognition while maintaining his status as an all-star of the game.
Although every year brings new players, strengths, and challenges, Turner says the goal remains the same: prepare players for the moment they have spent their entire lives chasing.
