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islesfan
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by Chad Ford on ESPN Insider
MEMPHIS -- In recent days, NBA scouts and executives gathered in Portsmouth, Va., for the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament, and Memphis, Tenn., for the Nike Hoop Summit to get their last looks at NBA prospects for a while. A league-imposed moratorium prohibits NBA teams from working out or contacting potential draft prospects until after the Orlando predraft camp in late May.
Of the two events, the Hoop Summit garnered the most attention from scouts. At least one potential lottery pick and two more potential first-rounders from the international team played in Memphis along with 10 of the top American high school players. Team USA's players won't be available until the 2008 NBA draft, but this gave NBA scouts a good chance to see them play against competition that was stiffer than the high school players the U.S. stars have been facing, even at high school All-Star games.
The PIT was a disappointment. Most of the NBA executives and scouts I spoke with in Memphis thought there were no first-round prospects in Portsmouth and anywhere from zero to five potential second-round prospects. Given that roughly 60 players showed up for the PIT, that's saying something.
So who helped and hurt themselves this weekend? I spoke with a couple of dozen NBA executives and scouts in Memphis to get their take on both events.
The Hoop Summit
France's Nicolas Batum could be a lottery pick this June.
• French forward Nicolas Batum came into the weekend as the most heralded draft-eligible prospect playing, and he lived up to expectations in Memphis. The 18-year-old impressed scouts in practices with his ability to do just about everything on the floor. Batum looks like he's the real deal -- kind of an international version of Rudy Gay.
Batum hasn't played much in France this year, but his excellent play in summer events and his Memphis performance mean that most NBA scouts and executives have him ranked as the best NBA prospect in Europe.
At 6-foot-8, Batum already is an elite athlete with an NBA body and an impressive 7-foot-1 wingspan. He can run the floor and get to the basket off the dribble. He's also shown a better than expected shooting stroke in practice. That carried over in the game as Batum hit 3-for-5 from 3-point range and several other midrange jumpers.
Batum's agent, Bouna Ndiaye, told me this weekend that he would enter Batum's name in the draft. He's looking for a promise in the lottery and he might get it. Right now Batum is ranked No. 18 in our Top 100. But at least four players ahead of him are unlikely to declare for the 2007 draft. That puts Batum at No. 14 in a draft with 14 lottery picks.
• There was a time three years ago when a majority of NBA scouts and executives believed Serbian forward Nemanja Aleksandrov was a potential top-five NBA pick.
But a torn ACL just before the 2005 NBA Draft ruined his chances, and Aleksandrov has been rehabbing for most of the last two years.
He finally began playing in Serbia at midseason, and this is the first chance NBA guys have had to take a good look at him in a competitive situation.
The results were mixed. Aleksandrov showed off the entire arsenal of skills that made NBA scouts fall in love with him in the first place. At 6-10, he has a Toni Kukoc type of skill level and basketball IQ, as a shooter, passer and post player. He also impressed scouts with toughness on the rebounding end -- that was a question mark before the injury.
Unfortunately, he also showed scouts some of his bad habits. Aleksandrov can be too unselfish. He passed up several point blank shots in the first half, instead opting for cute no-look passes that caught his teammates off-guard. He got more aggressive in the second half looking for his shot, but it didn't totally dispel the fears GMs have about his aggressiveness.
Aleksandrov's bigger issue is his knee. It's been nearly two years since the surgery and his agent, David Bauman, said he's 100 percent. However, Aleksandrov didn't look nearly as explosive or quick as he once did. That will be a concern for teams considering him as a first-round pick.
His stock will be difficult to judge. His performance at Hoop Summit was an indicator that he's working his way back, but is he there yet? Most NBA executives thought the answer was no, saying Aleksandrov, 19 years old, should play for another year before attempting to enter the draft.
If he does declare, I think teams in the late first round will give him a close look if the knee checks out OK structurally. If not, he's a second rounder.
Alexis Ajinca has NBA skills, but he still needs an NBA body.
• French big man Alexis Ajinca plays for Pau-Orthez and has gotten even less playing time than Batum this year. That means NBA scouts who have traveled to Europe this year have seen him sit on the bench and that's about it.
Ajinca, 18, was up and down in both the practices and the Hoop Summit game, but he still created a buzz. He measured at 7-1 in shoes and had a jaw-dropping 7-foot-9 wing span. He also impressed with his excellent perimeter skills. He has a silky jump shot with range all the way out to the NBA 3-point line. Ajinca also is an excellent athlete who seems to have a very solid basketball IQ.
But there's a catch. Ajinca is beyond skinny, weighing in at a paltry 207 pounds in Memphis. He cannot hold his position in the post and really gets pushed around in the paint, neutralizing a lot of his size. He has broad shoulders that suggest he might be able to put on some weight upstairs, but his narrow waist and nonexistent calves don't give scouts much hope that he'll get strong enough to roam the middle.
Still, he's a decent prospect as a face-the-basket 4 down the road in the NBA. If he were to come out now, Ajinca would have a shot at the first round, but more likely he'd be a second-round pick. In a year or two, with some weight gain and playing experience, he could be a lottery pick.
• Israeli forward Omri Casspi stood out, leading the international team on a big run in the second quarter. His toughness and all-around game shone in the game and in practice.
At 6-foot-7, he has decent size and athleticism for a small forward. But every scout and executive I spoke with had Casspi as a bubble second-round pick at the moment.
With another year or two in Israel, he might help his stock some, but it doesn't look like the 18-year-old Casspi is on the first-round radar at the moment.
• This year's sleeper was 6-foot-4 point guard Petteri Koponen from Finland.
Koponen got some attention from NBA scouts earlier in the year, and Grizzlies president Jerry West even made a visit to Finland to see him play this season.
Despite being wowed by his poise and fundamentals, scouts wondered whether he has the speed to make it in the pros. On Saturday, against two of the best high school guards in the country (O.J. Mayo and Derrick Rose), Koponen was solid, committing just one turnover and dishing out six assists against constant pressure from the two future NBA lottery picks.
His play caused one prominent NBA GM to remark, "He may be a better fit in the pros than I thought. I've been surprised he's been able to do what he's done against that competition."
• The biggest international disappointment was Chen Jianghua, a 6-2 point guard who saw some minutes for China in the World Championship this year.
He showed up late to practice, struggled to keep his focus, looked at times as though he'd watched one too many And1 videos and was a nonfactor in the game.
So much for China's version of Allen Iverson.
• Note: Since the U.S. players are ineligible for the 2007 NBA Draft, we won't be breaking them down in detail here.
Needless to say, at least three players, Michael Beasley (despite an atrocious game shooting the ball at the Nike Hoop Summit), O.J. Mayo (USC) and Derrick Rose (Memphis) appear to be legit top 10 candidates for the 2008 NBA Draft.
Guys such as Jerryd Bayless (Arizona), Donte' Greene (Syracuse) and Nolan Smith (Duke) also have a shot if they have great years.
The big disappointment was Kevin Love. His stats were fine, but he appeared to need better conditioning, and it's not clear he'll have the quickness to be a great NBA pro.
He'll be a stud for UCLA, no question, but his pro prospects, according to a number of scouts I spoke with, aren't so sure.
You can look for the debut of our 2008 NBA draft preview and 2008 Top 100 shortly after the 2007 NBA draft.
Portsmouth Invitational Tournament
The mood was somewhat dour for the Portsmouth Invitational.
Among the top players there were Russell Carter of Notre Dame, Dashaun Wood of Wright State, James Hughes of Northern Illinois, Ryvon Covile of Detroit, Stephane Lasme of Massachusetts and Zabian Dowdell of Virginia Tech.
Wood, a last-minute addition to the team, was named MVP of the tournament, averaging 15.6 points and nine assists for the tournament. Wood did a little of everything, setting up teammates, scoring from the perimeter and attacking the rim. The only real knock is that he stands barely 5-11.
Carter also lacks size, but his explosiveness and his ability to shoot the ball stood out. He scored 28 points and dished out seven assists in the title game and ended the tournament averaging 19.7 ppg and shooting 50 percent from 3-point range.
Hughes impressed with his size and rebounding. Lasme has great athleticism and a knack for blocking shots, but he appeared much shorter than his listed height at 6-foot-8. Covile had an impressive 16-point, 18-rebound game, but shot just 1-for-9 from the field in the championship game (he did grab 11 boards) and might lack the athleticism to play power forward in the NBA. Dowdell accentuated his already stellar senior season with strong play at Portsmouth -- but didn't win a lot of converts to the notion that he's a legit point guard.
All of them likely will get an invite to the Orlando predraft camp, where scouts and executives will get to see them against better competition.
Given the declining interest from NBA executives and scouts, the Portsmouth camp might be all but done.
A number of executives, including Chicago's John Paxson, Boston's Danny Ainge, Portland's Kevin Pritchard and Indiana's Donnie Walsh, skipped the event entirely, while some others stayed only one day.
Of the executives I polled, all but one thought the event has lost its usefulness. Without a dramatic change to the format, date and location, it seems NBA teams are going to be less willing to support it.
If it didn’t work in Phoenix with Nash and Stoutamire... it’s just not a winning formula. It’s an entertaining formula, but not a winning one. - Derek Harper talking about D'Antoni's System
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4/11/2007 7:05 AM