NBA Draft Talk; Evans, Harden, Mullens

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 21:26:00 -0400

Friday: Tyreke Evans, James Harden, B.J. Mullens, Alade Aminu

Spent another day out at the Washington Wizards pre-draft workouts, watching new coach Flip Saunders put the draft prospects through their paces in three separate sessions. Well, I actually missed the matinee workout with Arizona State shooting guard James Harden (damn DC traffic), but caught Ohio State big man B.J. Mullens and Georgia Tech's Alade Aminu going mano y mano before the headliner in my opinion, Memphis guard Tyreke Evans did his thing in the afternoon finale.

Harden and Evans are certainly in the mix for the Wizards number five pick, assuming they are still on the board; Evans said that the Sacramento Kings, who have the fourth pick, expressed a lot of interest in him after a recent workout. The Wizards need for a two-guard could favor the Pac-10 sophomore, along with the belief that with their assortment of athletic, but not quite ready for prime time young players, the Wizards would be wise to target a more skilled player, say Davidson's Stephon Curry or Pitt big man DeJuan Blair. Yet Evans' potential may simply be too great to ignore and he did little in today's workout to refute that.

By the time the media has been allowed to watch the workouts over the last two days, perhaps 30-45 minutes after the session started, most of the players looked rather gassed, including USC's DeMar DeRozan, who was in on Thursday.

Evans on the other hand was more than hanging in there, appearing unaffected despite running hard up and down the court and going from drill to drill. The 6'6, 219 pounder looked quick on dashes to the bucket and he nailed the vast majority of his mid-range and outside shots along the way, something he did not always do with the Tigers.

Perhaps the most noteworthy part of the session came at the end. Evans headed over to the trainers table after cramping and he was joined for a chat by Wizards GM Ernie Grunfeld. For 20 minutes. The length of time is significant because Grunfeld primarily watches the workouts from his perch just above the court and the post-workout conversations tend to be brief in nature.

"He was just telling me about stretching, really, but a lot of things about the league, what I can do well with the ball, where I can create for other players and play the point guard position," Evans said.

Whether that was the discussion or the two were breaking down Evans' potential role in a backcourt with Wizards star Gilbert Arenas or they were debating what the heck is happening on "Lost", the key is that the GM wanted to get to know the 19-year old stud prospect a little better. At this point in the draft process, the talent level is largely a given, with game film having been watched repeatedly. The workouts give the teams a chance to see behind the curtain and based on the amount of time the two spoke, I think Grunfeld is already imagining how Evans would fit in the Wizards backcourt, either at the point or as the off-guard.

"I'll probably play a little bit of both, the one and the two, because of my height and I've got good length," said Evans, who has an 84-inch wingspan. "I think I'd fit pretty good [with the Wizards]. It's a good team, one of the teams that's going to be in the playoffs next year. I wouldn't mind coming off the bench, watching Gilbert and learning a lot from those type of guys."

Mullens, who is slotted in several mock drafts to go somewhere in the top-20, showed a nice touch from the outside. He looked very comfortable facing up and hitting the 15-footer and showed extended range to the NBA 3-point line. The seven-foot frosh will need to bulk up to play quality minutes at the four on the next level and will need time to develop, but he could be a solid option for teams like the Pistons, T-Wolves and Jazz.

The 6'10 Aminu is an agile and active big man who might sneak into the latter stages of the second round, though unlikely a target of the Wizards, who also own the 32^nd pick.

NBA Draft Talk

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 21:09:00 -0400

Thursday: DeMar DeRozan, Ty Lawson, Taj Gibson

Friday: Tyreke Evans, James Harden

Just got back from watching the ongoing parade of draft prospects working out for the Washington Wizards, including likely top-10 pick DeMar DeRozan from USC and former UNC point Ty Lawson (pictured right). Other players in the group session held on the Wizards practice court at the Verizon Center included DeRozan's USC teammate Taj Gibson, Gonzaga's Josh Heytvelt and Jeremy Pargo, Arkansas' Patrick Beverly and Coppin State's Tywain McKee.

The media is allowed to catch the final 15 minutes or so of each session, though it was a little bit less for DeRozan, who came in for a private workout after the other six prospects finished. Hard to gauge much from this short window, but the 6-6 swingman looked a little winded towards the end of a running sideline-to-sideline, pull up at the elbow shooting drill. All the prospects shoot a high percentage of these uncontested looks, though he was not drilling a terribly high percentage (as opposed to Lawson, who maybe missed one or two shots from various spots on the court).

You can probably chalk the fatigue to the solo session, as DeRozan, who is leaving the Trojans after his freshman season, did not get the breaks that he would have working with the larger group. He acknowledged that downside, but he is going through all his workouts in this set up, which are what he and his agent wanted.

"It is something [he and his agent] talked about. I really want to go in and have the all staff see everything I improved on," DeRozan said after the workout. "Off the dribble, every aspect. The main focus is you. You get real fatigued going an hour, hour and fifteen hard by yourself every drill. It's tough."

Among the parts of his game DeRozan has focused on in preparation for the workout process include his long-range shooting (good, since he hit only 16.7 percent from the college 3-point line), ball handling and post up moves.

In addition to working out with the Wizards, who have the fifth pick in the upcoming draft, DeRozan has already visited Oklahoma City, who hold the third pick, along with other lottery teams. The Wizards could use another wing player for sure, though they already have another USC two-guard on the roster in the form of 2007 first round pick Nick Young. Since DeRozan, who averaged 13.9 points a game in his one season with the Trojans, is more athlete than skilled player at this point and the Wizards have a plethora of those types, I would doubt that he ends up in DC, though those could go up if the team trades down to the later stages of the lottery.

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Ben's Brain - NBA Draft

NBA Draft Talk; Evans, Harden, Mullens

NBA Draft Talk