Day #2 Of Bobcats Potential Draft Workouts
By Editorial Staff
Kemba Walker is coming to town! That’s the only guy I know from this list:
Delvon Johnson – Arkansas
Shelvin Mack – Butler
Trey Thompkins – Georgia
Tristan Thompson – Texas
Nikola Vucevic – USC
Kemba Walker – Connecticut
I know my professed ignorance on the subject of college ball and potential draftees must be troubling to our avid readers but seriously, who has time to keep up with an NBA season, write about it, do a full time job and keep up with college players? Probably some of these geeks I follow on twitter who celebrate not sleeping and retweet mid-level players saying “RISE N GRIDN” or whatever garbage they spout.
Kemba is the headliner, certainly. He was MOP at the NCAA Tournament, led the nation in scoring for part of the year, won the Bob Cousy award, won the national title, Big East title, carried UConn in so many ways, he was the “it” player this year in college hoops outside of the Jimmer. Big time talent, in my eyes anyway, regardless of size or how people think he will play in the NBA (aka worse than he was in college), I like him.
There’s Delvon Johnson who I’m reading is a defensive specialist. He went from Western Illinois to some commuinty college then on to Arkansas where he basically only had this one good year, luckily it was his senior year in a “weak” draft. But a 6’7″ PF/C that is an interior defender? Maybe he’ll be there at 39 and we’ll take a look at him, but I don’t know about that.
Shelvin Mack is out of Butler, who made two consecutive final four, actually 2 consecutive championship game appearances. He was their scorer. Sort of a PG/SG with ok speed and a nice jump shot. I don’t know much about him, but he’s listed as 6’3″ but actually like 6’1″, strong, but not all that quick. Not a floor general, not a significant shooting guard. I’m ehh, on him.
Trey Tompkins, looks to be a PF. At 6’10” he’s tall, not a huge wingspan for a guy of his height, he’s not a banger but more of a jump shooter. He’s like Tyrus Thomas without the crazy dunks and shot blocking. He went to Georgia, which, I don’t know, they don’t seem to have much of a basketball program? Not knocking them, but SEC schools outside of Florida and Kentucky always seem hit or miss to me. I like this quote from NBADraft.net: “graceful 6-foot-10 bigman with a polished offensive game and feathery touch … One of those players that wows you with skill level instead of athleticism … Can face the basket and knock down shots as well as do work on the block” We’ll see, DraftExpress kind of calls him a fatty though and says his shooting went away last year.
Tristan Thompson, PF or something out of Texas, he’ll be coming in as well and most people have him around 12 in their mock drafts. He’s shown at 6’9″ with a wingspan of 7’2″ which is huge. Quick and athletic, but he’s from Canada. Canada! He’s a back to the basket kind of guy, according to NBADraft.net that’s been playing center but he doesn’t have the size for that so who knows. DraftExpress is saying he is a good off the ball player on offense who has a hard time creating his own offense, so maybe pairing him with fellow Longhorn DJ Augustin could work, if the ‘Cats weren’t already logjammed at the #4.
Nickola Vucivic of Southern California is coming in as well. He was the tallest and heaviest dude at the combine last month. Sidenote: do they just measure dudes at the combine? They show height without shoes, with shoes, listed height, weight, wingspan, all these metrics about their size, just tell me if the dude can play or not! DraftExpress talks about him as a legit center, but in Europe. He’s not a banger, he does use his size but it’s more of that shooting, mid-range, three pointers here and there, garbage that I absolutely hate. The fact he could be drafted and then decide to go play in Europe, basically wasting a pick for 2-3 years like Ricky Rubio, doesn’t win any points with me either. Size, shooting, yeah, ok, you’re a European Center, we get it.
Sort of an odd group, PF/C and then Kemba and the Kid from Butler? I guess you take them when you can get them and hope they can matchup against somebody in these workouts to show you something. Today’s with Kenneth Faried – Morehead State, Gary Flowers – Southern Mississippi, Markieff Morris – Kansas, Alex Stepheson – USC, Demontez Stitt – Clemson they were looking at guys to draft at #19. With tomorrows, they’re all over the board, Kemba before the Bobcats pick at #9, Tompkins would be a reach at #9 and then the rest are all late first rounders, I just don’t know what they’re looking at or going for.