Just a couple days away from the NBA Draft. I will be doing a liveblog of the NBA Draft. I just haven’t decided which telecast to use. I’m leaning towards going with NBA TV. A little obscure, but on the plus side certain personalities will be out. No Stuart Scott, no Dick Vitale, no Steven A. Smith and while Jay Bilas is a good college basketball analyst I can’t stand him getting preachy about the college experience and his weak-ass defense of the one-and-done rule. It’s sad to think that my choice will come down to who is not on the air.
I still miss the NBA Draft on TNT. There was just more fun to it. Less taking itself way too seriously.
Onto the drafting stuff. Nice piece the other day on Biggs and Fields. Both are going to be undrafted. Both will be in the NBA Summer League. There seems to be some belief that Biggs might end up on a NBA roster in time. Both, though, are going to be earning their living playing basketball in Europe.
DeJuan Blair has become a mystery man in the draft. Not in the way of people trying to know him or get him for workouts. Not at all. He’s been back on request to plenty of teams for more. He is likely headed back to Chicago for a call back.
No one seems to know what team will grab him.
Blair’s final workout was with Utah, and it seems that the Jazz, choosing No. 20, are as low as Blair could go. Walters said Blair is unlikely to go to New York and be in the green room, even though he could land in the lottery. There was talk that Milwaukee, at No. 10, was interested in Blair, but the Bucks seem to have decided to go for a point guard. The first logical landing spot for Blair, then, is Charlotte at No. 12, though the Bobcats are rumored to be looking for a good perimeter defender.
There has been some sentiment in Indiana that Blair should be their guy, especially with the team short on toughness. But the Pacers might go with a guard. Phoenix and Detroit will likely pass on Blair, but the Bulls — still not sold on Tyrus Thomas — are certainly considering him at No. 16.
The knees seem to be the biggest issue. Not the height. Not the weight. The knees.
There is legitimate concern among NBA personnel about the long-term health of DeJuan Blair’s knees. He had ACL surgery in both knees in high school. To what extent he needs any kind of future work on his knees is up for debate. The one thing that is certain, according to the Pitt coaching staff, is that Blair never missed a practice or a game in his two seasons with the Panthers.
No one ever fact checks. Blair missed the Belmont game as a precaution. The knee swelled but there was no pain or damage.
But then Chad Ford writes this in a 3am update from yesterday.
By the way, Blair seems to be back in favor with more GMs. Over the weekend his agent, Happy Walters, had a couple of teams talk to Blair’s physician, James Bradley, who did Blair’s ACL surgeries in high school.
I’m not privy to the conversations, but I do think this latest development has put him back in the mix with the Pacers at No. 13 and the Bulls at 16.
He also floats the rumor that Portland may look to move up to grab him if he slips past Indiana.
Sam Young on the other hand has been steady on draft boards in the low-20s.
Pittsburgh’s Young has been holding steady throughout the workout season after a strong season for the Panthers en route to the Elite Eight. A little older than most college players coming out (24), Young’s hops and strength make him a first-round lock. A no-nonsense player like Young would be right up Jerry Sloan’s alley at 20 when the Jazz pick, and if he somehow slipped a little, the Thunder could be scoping him at 25, where Young would back up Kevin Durant and bring his scoring and athletic ability off the bench.
“He had some huge games for Pitt this year,” says an admiring Northwest Division personnel man. “And he went up after the workout in Toronto and got hurt (Young cut his elbow while he was performing a vertical leap test for the Raptors), and he showed up at the [Chicago] combine and worked out hard. He went up in a lot of people’s eyes.”
An Atlantic Division executive concurs: “He’s a tough sonofagun.”
The Cavs keep popping up as a team that might try to get Sam Young, even if they are scheduled to pick last in the round.
Which brings us to Sam Young, the 6-foot-6, 210-pound small forward from Pittsburgh. Some scouts have compared him to Twinsburg’s James Posey, but his outside shooting (37 percent on 3s) will have to improve for that to happen. But virtually every scout agrees that Young can defend. As the Orlando series showed, the Cavs really need an athlete in the 6-6 range who can guard someone. Some stats have Young shooting 44 percent on “catch-and-shoot” situations, according to draftexpress.com, a fun Web site. That means Young makes medium-range jumpers reasonably well when catching a pass and shooting it quickly. The Cavs do like him.
Apparently Young, while in Sac-town with other players for a workout was most noticeable for snickering at media for the way they hung outside the Kings practice facility for every little Ricky Rubio tidbit. Not that the media was feeling defensive.
Now the on-floor action wasn’t the only relevant part, as Rubio spent more than two hours inside the facility after the workout was over. We were told he was having lunch at one point (not sure who was at the table), and then informed that he was taking a shower. At one point, some of the prospects from the morning’s workout with Pitt’s Sam Young left the building to head for the airport and couldn’t help but chuckle at the media absurdity on display (again, the shame thing). Yet with all due respect to Sam – who has a great name and could be a great pick at No. 23 – he’s just not the guy fans are curious about right now.
And the media will do what it takes to shout random questions at the 18-year old as he ignores them walking past.
