Meyers Leonard, Tyler Zeller and John Henson have been locked in a battle to become the next big man prospect to come off the board after Anthony Davis and (likely) Andre Drummond get snatched up in the 2012 NBA Draft, so how have workouts and combine measurements affected their overall draft stock?
Chad Ford of ESPN has complied his NBA Draft Tier Rankings as a way to sort through the best available players in the draft, but Leonard, Zeller and Henson all land in the nebulous Tier 4 category. Anthony Davis is alone in Tier 1 (franchise players), and Drummond fits in with Damian Lillard and Dion Waiters in Tier 3 (consensus top-10 picks), but Tier 4 is where prospects that fail to create consensus fall. That essentially means Leonard, Zeller and Henson could go anywhere from the mid-lottery to the back half of the first-round.
In SB Nation Chicago's comprehensive 2012 NBA Mock Draft Meta-Analysis, Vol. 3, Leonard is the No. 11 overall prospect on draft boards, while Henson falls in at No. 12 and Zeller is close behind at No. 13.
For updates, stay tuned to SB Nation Chicago. For more in-depth coverage of Illini basketball, head over to Hail to the Orange. For additional news, notes and analysis from around the NBA, visit SB Nation's NBA news hub.