JasonThompsonFan
G-League
It's the insider:
We're getting closer. With 10 days to go until the NBA draft, there is still a lot of chatter. Teams are still doing workouts. Trade calls are heating up. Draft stocks are still rising and falling. Here's the latest from around the league.
• One of the biggest challenges in projecting the draft is trying to get a handle on who is exactly drafting where.
Sources continue to insist that the Charlotte Bobcats (2), Sacramento Kings (5), Portland Trail Blazers (6, 11) and Toronto Raptors (8) are all still open to moving the pick. Some of those trades could be with each other, but from what I can gather, none of the four teams I just mentioned are sold with the players that are available to them. In the case of the Bobcats, the team is looking to turn a high pick into multiple assets. The Raptors and Kings, as we've mentioned previously, are looking for veterans to anchor an already young roster. The Blazers? From what I can gather, they're open to anything and everything.
But the draft exodus may go even farther into the first round. Sources say that the New Orleans Hornets (10), Houston Rockets (14, 16) and Minnesota Timberwolves (18) are also open to moving their pick. In all three cases, those teams are looking for established young veterans to fill out their rosters.
• The teams at the top should be moving even closer to finalizing their draft boards this week. However, right now, things are very much up in the air for picks 2-4.
The consensus next tier players are Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Bradley Beal, Thomas Robinson, Harrison Barnes and Andre Drummond. Virtually every team in the league has those players ranked 2-6 on their boards in various orders.
The Bobcats have Kidd-Gilchrist and Beal in town for a workout on Monday, while Robinson hits Charlotte on Friday. Barnes, the other player in the mix for them, is also expected to work out there soon. From the sound of things, Robinson is the player they covet. Surprisingly, Barnes may be in second place in Charlotte.
The Wizards have already done the bulk of their homework. Robinson worked out in D.C. last Wednesday; Beal worked out for the Wizards on Friday; and Kidd-Gilchrist followed him on Saturday. Drummond is in town on Monday followed by Barnes on Tuesday. The signals coming out of Washington are still pretty fuzzy right now, and it sounds like every single player is still in the mix.
The Cavs had the best workout of the year so far on Saturday. Beal and Barnes went head to head against each other. Despite the size disadvantage, a source close to the Cavs said that Beal had a slightly better workout.
However, they were quick to caution that the workouts were just a small piece of the puzzle in the overall draft evaluation. The Cavs are expected to get Kidd-Gilchrist into town on Wednesday. Drummond is also expected to come in this week. Both players are also seriously in the mix, according to sources.
That means that as of right now there are as many as 10 potential scenarios for picks 2-4.
It also means that the Kings could end up finding Robinson, Kidd-Gilchrist, Beal, Barnes or Drummond sitting there at No. 5. I'm not so sure I'd be willing to deal if I was Sacramento until I knew who was going to be available.
• Of the five players just mentioned, Drummond is, by far, the biggest wild card. While it seems unlikely that the Bobcats draft him at No. 2 (they already took a flier on Bismack Biyombo last year) he is in the mix with the Wizards at No. 3, the Cavs at No. 4, the Kings at No. 5 and the Blazers at No. 6.
However, in speaking with sources in each of those teams, they all sound skittish about drafting Drummond so high.
"The reward is there, but so is the risk," one GM told ESPN. "In this case, he's the riskiest of the five by far and you have to be pretty confident as a GM that your owner is going to allow you to take that risk. Whoever drafts him is going to have to be patient and patience is a very rare commodity in our league."
I think there are a number of scenarios in which Drummond could slide out of the top six, but from what I can gather, he won't get past the Detroit Pistons at No. 9.
• Still trying to figure out which team promised Syracuse guard Dion Waiters? So are we. Two weeks ago, at the NBA combine, Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo was adamant, on air, that the Raptors weren't the team.
Over the weekend, Blazers GM Neil Olshey told the Oregonian that it wasn't him, either.
"I got the job on a Tuesday, and by the time I landed in Chicago the next day [for the predraft camp], I had convinced an owner [to pick a prospect], a player to shut down his workouts ... I mean, I hadn't even talked to my scouts yet," he said.
OK. But then Olshey goes on to talk about how real promises are and how he's done them in the past. Oh, and that the team that does promise the player routinely lies about it.
Most GMs in the league still believe that the Phoenix Suns are the most likely landing spot for Waiters. But I doubt he gets there.
The Raptors and Blazers are both high on him, and so are the Hornets. Even if the Suns did give him the promise, it doesn't stop a team ahead of them from drafting him.
• The deadline for players to withdraw from the NBA draft is Monday at 5 p.m. ET.
In years past, we would see a flood of college underclassmen decide to return to school. That's not happening this year. New NCAA rules forced underclassmen to withdraw by May 10 to retain their college eligibility.
So the only players we're really looking at are the international players who are younger than 22 years old.
This year 17 international players declared early for the 2012 NBA draft. As of Sunday night, only one international player, Turkey's Furkan Aldemir, was confirmed to be staying in the draft. Aldemir is a likely second-round selection. Sources say that France's Evan Fournier is also very likely to stay in the draft, as well. Fournier is projected to be a mid to late first-round pick.
A few others including Tomas Satoransky, Josep Franch and Tornike Shengelia might also stay. However, at this point, they don't look like they have a serious shot at the first round.
The rest of the early entrants -- Jonas Bergstedt, Maximilian Kleber, Lahaou Konate, Mindaugas Kupsas, Joffrey Lauvergne, Abdoulaye Loum, Nika Metreveli, Nemanja Nedovic, Alen Omic, Jakub Parzenski, Sertac Sanli and Mathieu Wojciechowski are expected to withdraw.
http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/blog..._=2012-nba-draft-uncertainty-reigns-top-picks
We're getting closer. With 10 days to go until the NBA draft, there is still a lot of chatter. Teams are still doing workouts. Trade calls are heating up. Draft stocks are still rising and falling. Here's the latest from around the league.
• One of the biggest challenges in projecting the draft is trying to get a handle on who is exactly drafting where.
Sources continue to insist that the Charlotte Bobcats (2), Sacramento Kings (5), Portland Trail Blazers (6, 11) and Toronto Raptors (8) are all still open to moving the pick. Some of those trades could be with each other, but from what I can gather, none of the four teams I just mentioned are sold with the players that are available to them. In the case of the Bobcats, the team is looking to turn a high pick into multiple assets. The Raptors and Kings, as we've mentioned previously, are looking for veterans to anchor an already young roster. The Blazers? From what I can gather, they're open to anything and everything.
But the draft exodus may go even farther into the first round. Sources say that the New Orleans Hornets (10), Houston Rockets (14, 16) and Minnesota Timberwolves (18) are also open to moving their pick. In all three cases, those teams are looking for established young veterans to fill out their rosters.
• The teams at the top should be moving even closer to finalizing their draft boards this week. However, right now, things are very much up in the air for picks 2-4.
The consensus next tier players are Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Bradley Beal, Thomas Robinson, Harrison Barnes and Andre Drummond. Virtually every team in the league has those players ranked 2-6 on their boards in various orders.
The Bobcats have Kidd-Gilchrist and Beal in town for a workout on Monday, while Robinson hits Charlotte on Friday. Barnes, the other player in the mix for them, is also expected to work out there soon. From the sound of things, Robinson is the player they covet. Surprisingly, Barnes may be in second place in Charlotte.
The Wizards have already done the bulk of their homework. Robinson worked out in D.C. last Wednesday; Beal worked out for the Wizards on Friday; and Kidd-Gilchrist followed him on Saturday. Drummond is in town on Monday followed by Barnes on Tuesday. The signals coming out of Washington are still pretty fuzzy right now, and it sounds like every single player is still in the mix.
The Cavs had the best workout of the year so far on Saturday. Beal and Barnes went head to head against each other. Despite the size disadvantage, a source close to the Cavs said that Beal had a slightly better workout.
However, they were quick to caution that the workouts were just a small piece of the puzzle in the overall draft evaluation. The Cavs are expected to get Kidd-Gilchrist into town on Wednesday. Drummond is also expected to come in this week. Both players are also seriously in the mix, according to sources.
That means that as of right now there are as many as 10 potential scenarios for picks 2-4.
It also means that the Kings could end up finding Robinson, Kidd-Gilchrist, Beal, Barnes or Drummond sitting there at No. 5. I'm not so sure I'd be willing to deal if I was Sacramento until I knew who was going to be available.
• Of the five players just mentioned, Drummond is, by far, the biggest wild card. While it seems unlikely that the Bobcats draft him at No. 2 (they already took a flier on Bismack Biyombo last year) he is in the mix with the Wizards at No. 3, the Cavs at No. 4, the Kings at No. 5 and the Blazers at No. 6.
However, in speaking with sources in each of those teams, they all sound skittish about drafting Drummond so high.
"The reward is there, but so is the risk," one GM told ESPN. "In this case, he's the riskiest of the five by far and you have to be pretty confident as a GM that your owner is going to allow you to take that risk. Whoever drafts him is going to have to be patient and patience is a very rare commodity in our league."
I think there are a number of scenarios in which Drummond could slide out of the top six, but from what I can gather, he won't get past the Detroit Pistons at No. 9.
• Still trying to figure out which team promised Syracuse guard Dion Waiters? So are we. Two weeks ago, at the NBA combine, Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo was adamant, on air, that the Raptors weren't the team.
Over the weekend, Blazers GM Neil Olshey told the Oregonian that it wasn't him, either.
"I got the job on a Tuesday, and by the time I landed in Chicago the next day [for the predraft camp], I had convinced an owner [to pick a prospect], a player to shut down his workouts ... I mean, I hadn't even talked to my scouts yet," he said.
OK. But then Olshey goes on to talk about how real promises are and how he's done them in the past. Oh, and that the team that does promise the player routinely lies about it.
Most GMs in the league still believe that the Phoenix Suns are the most likely landing spot for Waiters. But I doubt he gets there.
The Raptors and Blazers are both high on him, and so are the Hornets. Even if the Suns did give him the promise, it doesn't stop a team ahead of them from drafting him.
• The deadline for players to withdraw from the NBA draft is Monday at 5 p.m. ET.
In years past, we would see a flood of college underclassmen decide to return to school. That's not happening this year. New NCAA rules forced underclassmen to withdraw by May 10 to retain their college eligibility.
So the only players we're really looking at are the international players who are younger than 22 years old.
This year 17 international players declared early for the 2012 NBA draft. As of Sunday night, only one international player, Turkey's Furkan Aldemir, was confirmed to be staying in the draft. Aldemir is a likely second-round selection. Sources say that France's Evan Fournier is also very likely to stay in the draft, as well. Fournier is projected to be a mid to late first-round pick.
A few others including Tomas Satoransky, Josep Franch and Tornike Shengelia might also stay. However, at this point, they don't look like they have a serious shot at the first round.
The rest of the early entrants -- Jonas Bergstedt, Maximilian Kleber, Lahaou Konate, Mindaugas Kupsas, Joffrey Lauvergne, Abdoulaye Loum, Nika Metreveli, Nemanja Nedovic, Alen Omic, Jakub Parzenski, Sertac Sanli and Mathieu Wojciechowski are expected to withdraw.
http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/blog..._=2012-nba-draft-uncertainty-reigns-top-picks
