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David Padgett Louisville

David Padgett put on a passing clinic, rebounding from two underwhelming performances to show NBA executives in attendance just what he can bring to the table as an extremely heady high-post center who makes everyone around him better. He finally played a bit more aggressively looking for ways to make his presence felt offensively, not just looking to pass the ball unselfishly on every possession like he did previously. He showed nice footwork in the post to go along with his crafty head-fakes and ability to finish with either hand. He often lacks the athleticism to finish many of the moves he creates for himself, but hopefully he will be able to improve on that as his body gets healthier. He’s a really interesting player who would be well served to develop a deadly jump-shot teams need to respect from 16 to 18 feet.

It’s too bad Padgett had such injury trouble in college because otherwise he would have been a likely first round pick. I wouldn’t be surprised if David eventually makes a roster, but it won’t be likely for a couple of years.

Othello Hunter Ohio St.

Othello Hunter again put his impressive physical tools in display, to the tune of 11 points and 14 rebounds (7 offensive) in 25 minutes. His length and athleticism allow him to make plays that other big men here aren’t capable of, and he’s made a strong case for himself to be drafted or get a long look in summer league/training camp. He still has a lot of upside to continue to improve.

Maybe he will prove me wrong and a team will draft him. He could just go on to have a 10+ year career in the NBA too. And maybe Kwame Brown will finally live up to all the hype?

Jeremy Pargo Gonzaga

Jeremy Pargo had a game-high 20 points (7-16 FG, 5-7 FT) to go along with 4 assists. Unfortunately, he also had 6 turnovers and missed three of his four 3-pointers. He pushed the ball up the floor extremely well, showed terrific explosiveness getting by his man and giving himself options in the half-court, and also flashed some glimpses of solid court-vision, but his poor decision making led to way too many turnovers, which has typically been his problem. Going back to school and improving his decision making skills looks like a very good option at this point.

Jeremy has shown up on a lot of draftexpress.com write ups. I hope he knows what his chances are. If not, look out D-League.

Robert Vaden UAB

Robert Vaden finished off the camp with another fairly solid performance, scoring 11 points in 21 minutes to go along with 3 assists and no turnovers. He’s really impressed with his ability to move off the ball, read screens and find open shots for himself, elevating sharply and creating separation from his defender and throwing the ball in the basket with machine like efficiency, despite his violent leg kicks. He’s really strong and has clearly worked on his body since the season ended, and did a much better job playing within the offense and setting up teammates than he did earlier in this camp. On the negative side, he’s not the most athletic or creative player you’ll find in terms of his ball-handling skills, favoring his right hand strongly and struggling to finish that at times around the rim. It appears that he’ll be returning to school, and it will be interesting to see what kind of year he has next season.

If Vaden were to stay in the draft, I would not be shocked. He’s already 23 and having already sat out a year because of a transfer, it would probably be wise just to throw his hat in the ring and if all else fails, just hope to get signed by some team’s summer league squad.

DraftExpress believed that Gary Forbes was the MVP of the camp. You would think his overall performance would catapult him into the first round, but apparently he will still be a 2nd round choice.

Regardless, he’s clearly the MVP of the pre-draft camp by a fairly large margin, and has helped his stock considerably from being projected as a late second round pick on our board. You would think that he’d have a chance to maybe get some looks in the late first based off what we’ve seen here at the pre-draft camp in years past, but most NBA people we spoke with did not agree with that. We will have to wait and see…

Hey, Gary sure made an impression on at least some of the teams. I’ll go out on a limb and say 1st round selection for Gary Forbes.

Post from: EveryJoe

Day 4 in Orlando

Joseph Treutlein from draftexpress.com again categorizes how well certain guys are playing after the action on Thursday concluded.

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Some of the good

Malik Hairston Oregon

An injury to Tywon Lawson forced Hairston to play point guard, something he was clearly uncomfortable doing as evidenced by his four turnovers. The Detroit native did, however, make a number of heady cuts to the basket and knocked down a few jumpers, including a clutch shot late in the game to hold off the opposing team.

Teams will like Malik’s intangibles and versatility the most. His hoop’s IQ is very high and quite frankly I’m not sure if there’s a safer way to go in the 2nd round.

Wayne Ellington UNC

Wayne’s draft stock actually rose after Thursday’s action…

Ellington bounced back from an awful first day by moving off the ball beautifully and doing a great job knocking down shots from 17 to 20 feet by either spotting up, coming off a screen or pulling up off the dribble. Considering how one-dimensional he’s been at the camp, Ellington obviously needs to be stroking the ball well from outside if he is to make any type of impression. His defense, ball handling and finishing at the rim didn’t do him many favors.

Hopefully Wayne will heed the advice of the people that truly care about his future and return to school. Analysts are saying the same types of things about Wayne that I saw much of during the season. Again I’m not in Orlando watching these guys but what’s being said about Wayne seems right on.

Tywon Lawson UNC

After proving to be the top player in Orlando on Wednesday, Lawson suffered a minor injury and was kept out of action on Thursday. The sophomore playmaker is expected to return to action for Friday’s final day of camp.

Here’s DraftExpress President Jonathan Givony’s thoughts on Lawson as well,

Joining the injured list is Ty Lawson, fresh off a breakout performance last night—with a supposed “hip pointer.” Some NBA people we spoke with wondered whether hip pointer is actually code for “first round promise,” considering how well he played in the first day and how few point guards there are in this draft once you get past D.J. Augustin. Let’s see if he comes out and plays in the final day.

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Those first round promises can be misleading. But I believe Tywon is a first round talent, just not top 20 material. Orlando at #22 would be wise to take him, as well would San Antonio at #25.

Gary Forbes Massachusetts

Forbes had the camp’s most dominant performance so far, finishing with 30 points on only 16 shot attempts. He showed the full repertoire offensively, slashing to the rim, posting up smaller defenders and even hitting an NBA three-pointer. Even more impressive was his ability to get to the line 16 times within the flow of the offense. The UMass senior was easily the player of the day on Thursday and continued to make a case why he should be selected in the second round.

I’ve seen Forbes’s name in the 2nd round of a few mock drafts. After Friday concludes he will likely pop up in many more of them.

DeMarcus Nelson Duke

Played with his typical outstanding intensity on both ends of the court. He brought the ball up and even ran the point at times, initiating the offense but not doing much shot creating for teammates. Where Nelson really excelled was getting out in transition and slashing to the basket. He did a much better job finishing at the rim than he did Wednesday. Nelson’s defense wasn’t as good as it usually is in his matchup with the incredibly quick Mike Taylor, who gave him some problems on dribble drives. Nelson’s limitations with size and ball handling, along with his average athleticism, still make the NBA an uphill climb, but continuing to play with this kind of fire is definitely helping his cause.

Nelson, despite playing well, will not get drafted. Good college player will make a solid overseas player.

Mike Taylor Iowa State (played in the D-League last year)

D-League champion Mike Taylor put all of the professional experience he garnered this season to great use, looking more explosive than anyone else on the floor. He blew by defenders as if they weren’t there, shot the ball well from the perimeter and even showed some decent court vision in finding the open man in the half court. Taylor has been one of the camp’s most impressive players and has helped his NBA stock considerably. The Louis Williams clone will have a lot of buzz going into the final day.

When I saw Mike Taylor’s name on draftexpress.com a few days ago, I thought, who is this guy? Well the craze for Mr. Taylor has continued and I for one do not know what to make of it. He played one year at Iowa St. before getting booted from the team because of multiple arrests. But he had a great year in the D-League and has since then recieved tons of interest. He’ll likely get drafted in the early 2nd round.

Some of the bad

Davon Jefferson USC

Jefferson has yet to show the type of effort or fire you would expect to see from a player who is currently fighting for his professional future after having prematurely hired an agent despite an average freshman season at USC. His conditioning looks poor, he’s dribbling the ball excessively and he has yet to make use of the terrific athletic ability that made him a prospect in the first place.

D-League 2nd team wannabe.

Trent Plaisted BYU

Another underclassman who may have hastily decided to forfeit his college eligibility, Plaisted has struggled to make an impact consistently. He’s just floating up and down aimlessly at times and not using his athleticism to finish strong around the basket. You can’t ignore his physical tools, but at the same time, you’d like to see him make more use of them on the glass or defensively.

In the few times I’ve seen him play, he has always impressed me. I assure you he will not be a repeat of the last recently drafted BYU big man Rafael Araujo. Plaisted will get drafted, but will it be with the right team?

I also want to add a little bit about Kansas big men Sasha Kaun and Darnell Jackson. I’ve already mentioned that Sasha will get drafted, but didn’t really mention Darnell.

Here’s what Givony said about these two on Thursday

The Kansas duo Darnell Jackson and Sasha Kaun did a good job in the morning drills as well. Kaun with his feel for the game, agility and scrappiness around the basket, and Jackson with his improved mid-range jumper and the intensity he brings to the floor. It’s not hard to see why Kansas was so good this year with those two manning the post alongside Darrell Arthur. Jackson’s strong play definitely continued in the actual game, as he made some very quick and effective moves in the post, was constantly around the ball, knocked down his only shot and showed a lot of heart.

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I’m stiil saying that Kaun will get drafted but Darnell seems too mediocre and pedestrian to play at the NBA level. But I’m sure people said the same thing about Malik Rose too.

I will have more player reviews and reaction from Friday’s happenings soon.

Post from: EveryJoe

Day 3 in Orlando

Jonathan Givony, president of DraftExpress, characterized the first day as hectic and not a fair barometer of the talent at the camp.

It was hard to read too much into anything we saw in day one—players are being sent in and out of the game constantly, whistles are being blown in all directions, and turnovers, over-dribbling and bad shots abound. Isolated possessions gave you brief glimpses into some of the things these players can bring to the table, but for the most part today was about putting faces and names to the jersey numbers as your eyes constantly darted back and forth between the court and the roster list. Although we’ve seen all of these players on film repeatedly, and many of them in person during the regular season or in private workouts over the past few weeks, even we didn’t recognize everyone, largely due to the fact that many of the players here have lost significant amounts of weight since the season ended.

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Likewise, Day 1 was deemed as “disappointing” by draftexpress.com writer Joseph Treutlein. But he states Day 2 went much better and figured many of the first day nerves had subsided for most of the players.

Treutlein categorizes certain players whose stock he believes are rising, staying the same and dropping. Some players are on his list that I actually talked about in some earlier posts. Sleeper Seniors Should I stay or should I go?

Rising

Malik Hairston Oregon

While he didn’t have a noteworthy statistical game, Hairston has clearly benefited from getting in better shape. He showed improved elevation, quickness and explosiveness and looked like a new player. He had some nice dunks and was particularly impressive with his vision and unselfishness. His team has great chemistry and he’s a big reason for that.

This is definitely a huge plus for Malik. A couple more solid days of play and you can mark him down as a 2nd round pick.

Pat Calathes St. Joes

Played a very well-rounded game, scoring 10 points with five assists in just 15 minutes. He showed off ball-handling skills unique for a player of his size. There aren’t many 6-10 players who can do some of the things he did today. He was in rhythm almost immediately both times he was called off the bench, showing terrific creativity and feel for the game.

Looks like I’m two for two so far. Where do I sign up DraftExpress? Can I start immediately?

Dropping

Wayne Ellington UNC

Struggled mightily, hitting 3-of-10 from the field with six turnovers. Looked unimpressive athletically and with his ball-handling. Hasn’t been hitting his jump shot since he arrived.

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I’m telling you he’s got to come back for his junior year. Another couple of bad days and Wayne’s looking at shooting himself right out of the draft altogether.

Treutlein covered many more players than just these three. Some of them are

Patrick Ewing Jr. Georgetown

Ewing was on the “rising” list. As far as I’m concerned he can rise all he wants but there’s no way he gets drafted. Averaged 4.3 ppg in his four year career. Good luck.

Othello Hunter Ohio St.

Othello was on the “no movement” (staying the same) list. Saw this guy play a half a dozen times or so during his senior year. Athletic player but will have to settle for a playing career overseas.

George Hill IUPUI

George was also on the “no movement” list. I actually had the treat of seeing George Hill play in person once this past season. “Treat” might be overstating things a bit (a lot), but I came away sort of on the fence on whether or not the guy can even play in the D-League. He’s smooth, can handle the ball fairly well and has one of the best career field goal percentages I’ve ever seen for a guard, 53%. But not yet a NBA caliber point guard in the least bit. And at 6’2, a point guard is all he’ll ever be. Basically I’m saying George needs to return for his senior year and watch Steve Nash tapes or something.

Surprisingly Kyle Weaver (Washington St.) and Jamont Gordon (Miss. St.) passed up their camp invitations and are not participating. Both of their draft stocks are probably plummeting and are under the “dropping” category as of now. Does Weaver, a senior, know that he’s exhausted all of his college eligibility? At least Gordon can decide to pull out on June 16th and go back to school.

Hopefully I’ll have news from Day 3 of the Pre-Draft camp shortly.

Post from: EveryJoe

Orlando’s winners and losers so far