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 Every year the top prospects leave behind the comforts of college and head to workout sites in Chicago, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New York, Houston and Florida to look for an edge that might put them in a better draft position.

Some hire basketball coaches. Others hire personal trainers. A few hire former Navy SEALs.

The techniques from gym to gym may differ, but the goal is the same: to fulfill a lifelong dream of playing in the NBA.

For the past decade I’ve taken a pre-draft tour to the top sites. I’ve seen the likes ofDwight Howard, Dwyane Wade, Greg Oden, Blake Griffin and a host of other lesser-known prospects prepare for the NBA draft.

This year is no different. Starting Monday, and over the course of the next three weeks, I’ll be traveling throughout the U.S. checking in on the pre-draft workouts of the top prospects in the draft.

Players have gotten off to a later start than usual this year thanks to the fact that the NBA has pushed back both the draft lottery and Chicago pre-draft camp several weeks.

But by now, virtually every draft prospect in the country is in full workout mode as NBA teams begin to bring in prospects for individual workouts. Second-round prospects will hit New Jersey this weekend for a major workout in front of all 30 teams, and after that they’ll begin leaving for individual team workouts. Most of the elite prospects in the draft won’t begin team workouts until after the Chicago camp.

Who can help and hurt themselves the most in the individual workout setting? I spoke with a number of GMs to try to identify who could possibly be workout warriors and who may struggle in their final examinations as a NBA prospect.

GMs identified Baylor’s Perry Jones, Kentucky’s Terrence Jones, Washington’s Terrence Ross, Baylor’s Quincy Miller and St. Bonaventure’s Andrew Nicholson as players who could help their stock the most with great workouts.

All of them have one thing in common: skill. And many of them combine that with terrific athleticism to boot.

"These workouts can’t really measure basketball IQ or your feel for the game. We have a whole season of scouting and film for that," one GM said. "But they can allow us to gauge the skill level of players in ways that sometimes their college systems might hide. It’s also a terrific gauge of a player’s athletic abilities, which are often pushed to the maximum in workouts."

It’s pretty easy to see why GMs expect these players to do well. Perry Jones is both an elite athlete and has a great face-up game that wasn’t always used well at Baylor.

"If he comes in and really starts hitting shots, he could go very, very high," one GM said. "As a power forward, I think he’s going to be a disappointment in the league. But if he could be a Paul George-type player? He could be special. George was accused of being laid-back in college, too. It’s why he slipped to No. 10. Now you see the way the Pacers use him and you think the sky is the limit for him."

Terrence Jones primarily played down low for the Wildcats, but he’s got a lot more to his game too. "He’s not going to wow you in the athletic drills, but I think he’s got such a well-rounded game," another GM said. "I see some Lamar Odom in him. He’s another guy who, at 6-foot-9, should really excel in drills and two-on-two play. I think he was surrounded by so much talent at Kentucky that people just don’t get how special a player he can be."

Ross hasn’t been mentioned in the same rarified air as some of the other elite 2-guard prospects, but several GMs say that’s a big mistake. "That Washington team was pretty dysfunctional this year and I think it hid, at times, what Ross is capable of," said one GM. "He’s got the size, athletic ability and he can really, really shoot the ball. I think when he gets into workouts with [Jeremy] Lamb, [Dion] Waiters and [Austin] Rivers, he’s going to surprise a lot of people. I’m not sure he’s not the best 2 guard on the board. Take him away from Washington and I think he’s going to be an elite prospect."

Miller struggled as a freshman to fit in when Perry Jones returned from suspension and, at times, looked like he was still not 100 percent recovered from ACL surgery that took place during his senior season of high school. But several GMs said their scouts who tracked Miller in high school still believe he has the talent of a top-10 pick. "You watch the film and see the versatility and then you think, ‘once he’s 100 percent and has the full athletic ability back, you have to seriously consider him.’ If he can hold his own or better against some older, more established prospects, there’s no reason he couldn’t go in the top 10. I think the workouts may be more important to him than any other player in the draft."

Nicholson has played four years of college ball. Is there anything left for teams to learn about him? "I don’t think people realize how skilled he really is," one GM said. "I keep hearing my scouts say he’s kind of like David West. Well, if he is David West, he should be 15 spots higher on our board. The more I’ve watched him on film, the more I think we may be missing on him. Skilled power forwards like West are hard to come by."

Notes

• The New Jersey Nets and Houston Rockets are hosting the first big draft workout of the season this weekend. Unfortunately, the main draw, France’s Evan Fournier, won’t be there. Fournier hurt himself in France earlier in the week and had to withdraw from the workout.

Right now Fournier is the only international player we have projected as a first-round pick. If he can’t get healthy enough to work out for teams, his stock could take a hit. It looks like he’s targeting the adidas Eurocamp as a spot where he can show off his wares, but with a compressed draft season this year, how many NBA decision-makers are going to make the trip to Treviso?

• Speaking of international players, a number of NBA scouts came back from the Euroleague Final Four in Turkey buzzing about Greek forward Kostas Papanikolaou. Papanikolaou’s team, Olympiakos, won the Euroleague title, and Papanikolaou was a big reason why. He had 18 points and four rebounds in 22 minutes in the championship game and, more importantly, slowed down CSKA’s Andrei Kirilenko on the defensive end.

The 6-8, 22-year-old forward averaged just six points and 3.4 rebounds per game for Olympiakos this season and isn’t a great athlete, but he’s won over some NBA scouts with his toughness, basketball IQ and motor.

If he were a better shooter or athlete, he’d have a real shot at the first round. Nevertheless, after his performance last weekend, he’s now a likely second-round pick.