[chocboywndrParticipant]

I am really interested to read about Drummond after GM’s saw his workout. If someone could help me out please.

 http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/blog?name=nba_draft&id=7988474&_slug_=nba-draft-fall-love-uconn-andre-drummond&action=login&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fnba%2fblog%3fname%3dnba_draft%26id%3d7988474%26_slug_%3dnba-draft-fall-love-uconn-andre-drummond

[So raspyParticipant]

 por favor

 

[TyroberParticipant]

 NEW YORK — At around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, some lucky team is going to win the first pick in the NBA draft and land Kentucky big man Anthony Davis.

 

 

The other 13 teams that don’t land Davis have a major conundrum.

 

 

If Anthony Davis is the No. 1 pick, who is No. 2?

 

 

I’m pacing up and down 42nd Street on a sweltering Manhattan morning. Less than an hour ago I was in a private gym in Manhattan watching UConn big man Andre Drummondwork out with trainer Idan Ravin.

 

 

Drummond currently sits at No. 5 on our Big Board. However, a number of lottery teams are seriously considering him with the No. 2 pick in the draft.

 

 

I take out my iPhone and make a call to get some help processing what I saw. ESPN high school scouting guru Dave Telep answers.

 

 

"I just got out of a workout with Andre Drummond."

 

 

Telep chuckles. "Can I guess what you saw?" he asks.

 

 

"Go ahead."

 

 

"You saw a huge man with incredible athletic ability who can go really hard, elevate above the rim and can handle and shoot the ball like a player much smaller than the guy you saw. And you’re thinking this kid could be a superstar. Right?" Telep says.

 

 

"Ummmm … exactly."

The workout itself was truncated. Drummond is recovering from a weekend bout of food poisoning, and Ravin didn’t want to over push on Drummond’s first day back in the gym. Doesn’t really matter.

 

 

It’s not every day you walk into a gym and see a 6-foot-11, 270-pound big man with a 7-foot-5 wingspan do the things Drummond can do. In my 15 years of covering the NBA draft, you come across athletes like Drummond only once or twice a decade — strong, huge, explosive and unusually quick for someone his size.

 

 

Why didn’t Drummond dominate every game at UConn? I ask myself that over and over again. I watched Drummond at least 10 times this year. He exploded for a huge dunk here and there. Occasionally took over the game for a few minutes. He could be special, like he was against Syracuse in the Big East tournament. Or he could disappear like he did against Iowa State in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Usually I left a little disappointed every time I saw him play. There’s so much there to work with and so little production.

 

 

Telep is sympathetic. Between high school games, AAU tournaments and camps, he watched Drummond play more than 25 times before he played a game for the Huskies.

 

 

"The questions you’re asking yourself right now I’ve been asking for four years. I’ve seen Drummond dominate a game, especially when he was matched up against another top prospect like Ike Austin or Mitch McGary. He wanted to prove he’s the best player in the building. But I’ve never seen it consistently. He’s never brought it from game to game. Sometimes it’s there. Most of the time it wasn’t. If he has a killer instinct, he doesn’t turn it on very often."

 

 

The asterisk.

 

 

There’s always one with players like Drummond. Elite size? Poor athlete. Elite athlete? Bad motor. Great motor? Can’t shoot. Great shooter? Undersized. I could keep going on and on.

 

 

Drummond’s dilemma is the same one we discussed last week with Perry Jones. Great athlete. Great size. Questionable motor/passion for the game.

 

 

Ravin, whose clients include Carmelo Anthony, Amare Stoudemire and a number of other NBA All-Stars, has been dubbed the Hoops Whisperer. He is known for getting into the heads of talented and sometimes troubled players and getting them to believe in themselves. He’s also known for helping players add more versatility to their game.

 

 

"Idan knows skills work," Stoudemire told the Times. "He knows how to get you versatile."

 

 

It sounds like Ravin might already be in Drummond’s head. Drummond has lost 22 pounds since starting his workouts. He’s also sped up, and now Drummond isn’t so sure he should be forced to live in the paint in the NBA either. He says his favorite player is Kevin Durant, not Dwight Howard or Shaquille O’Neal. Like Durant and Jones, he isn’t afraid to take jumpers instead of hook shots in the paint.

Being big always is a premium commodity for NBA scouts come draft time. But not always for the players.

 

 

"The game isn’t as fun for big men," one ex-NBA player turned front office executive told ESPN.com. "You run up and down the floor and depend on your guards to get you the ball. Lots of times you leave empty-handed. Every big guy dreams of handling the ball and taking 20 to 30 shots a night."

 

 

The difference between Durant and Drummond, however, is enormous. Both players were used very differently by their college coaches and had very different results.

 

 

Drummond averaged 10 ppg as a freshman and didn’t make a 3-pointer all year. Durant averaged nearly 26 ppg and made 82 3s. But the bigger issue is that killer instinct. The eye of the tiger. Durant was skinny and not very explosive, but everyone who saw him play knew he had "it." Durant wanted to win at all costs and had had ice running through his veins with the game hanging in the balance. Drummond has yet to show us the "it."

 

 

Thus, the questions. And unfortunately, not enough answers.

 

 

Some team is going to fall in love with Drummond during workouts. Others will be scared to death.

 

 

At 18 years old, he’s the second-youngest player in this year’s draft class. He has a lot of time and space to grow his game. With age, maturity and being nurtured in the right system, he might be the next Dwight Howard, the next Andrew Bynum or if you want to lower your sights a little — the next DeAndre Jordan.

 

 

Or he might not be. Kwame Brown and Darko Milicic proved that size and athletic ability alone don’t guarantee NBA success.

 

 

Drummond is the next test case. Dwight or Kwame? Bynum or Darko? Someone in between? Tyson Chandler or DeAndre Jordan perhaps?

 

 

With Davis a lock to go No. 1, some poor GM with the No. 2 pick will effectively be on the clock around 8:30 p.m. I have Telep’s phone number if they need it.

 

 

Impact players drafted since 1985

Slipped Through the Lottery

Year	Player	Pick	Drafted by
2011	Kawhi Leonard	15	Spurs
2011	Kenneth Faried	22	Nuggets
2010	Avery Bradley	19	Celtics
2009	Jrue Holiday	17	Sixers
2009	Ty Lawson	18	Nuggets
2008	Roy Hibbert	17	Pacers
2007	Rodney Stuckey	15	Pistons
2007	Marc Gasol	48	Lakers
2006	Rajon Rondo	21	Celtics
2005	Danny Granger	17	Pacers
2005	David Lee	30	Knicks
2005	Monta Ellis	40	Warriors
2004	Al Jefferson	15	Celtics
2004	Josh Smith	17	Hawks
2003	Josh Howard	29	Mavericks
2002	Carlos Boozer	35	Cavaliers
2002	Tayshaun Prince	23rd	Pistons
2001	Tony Parker	28	Spurs
2001	Gilbert Arenas	31	Warriors
2001	Mehmet Okur	38	Pistons
2000	Michael Redd	43	Bucks
1999	Manu Ginobili	57	Spurs
1999	Andrei Kirilenko	24	Jazz
1998	Rashard Lewis	32	Sonics
1996	Steve Nash	15	Suns
1996	Jermaine O’Neal	17	Trail Blazers
1993	Sam Cassell	24	Rockets
1990	Tony Kukoc	29	Bulls
1987	Reggie Lewis	22	Celtics
1986	Mark Price	25	Mavericks
1986	Dennis Rodman	27	Pistons
1985	Joe Dumars	18	Pistons

• Getting the No. 1 pick doesn’t guarantee that you’ll be making the playoffs right away. Just four No. 1 picks have won rookie of the year and helped their teams into the playoffs their rookie season: David Robinson, Chris Webber, Tim Duncan and Derrick Rose.

 

 

It gets even worse. Just five No. 1 picks have ever led the team that’s drafted them to an NBA championship since the NBA/ABA merger in 1976: Magic Johnson, James Worthy, Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson and Tim Duncan.

So for all of that talk about LeBron James not winning a championship, he’s not alone.

 

 

Other storylines

 

 

Here are some other interesting storylines going into Wednesday’s draft lottery (with a shout-out to our awesome Mark Malzewski from ESPN Stats and Information, who compiled much of this information)

 

 

• The Charlotte Bobcats have a 25 percent chance of winning the lottery, the best odds among the 13 teams in the lottery (New Orleans has two lottery picks). Since the lottery moved to its present format in 1994, the team with (or tied for) the best odds has won just three of the 18 lotteries: Philadelphia in 1996 (selected Allen Iverson); Cleveland in 2003 (selected LeBron James) and Orlando in 2004 (selected Dwight Howard). That can’t inspire a lot of confidence in Bobcats fans. Then again, the team with the worst record is overdue to win the lottery. They should win it every four years. Currently the team with the worst record has won just 16.6 percent of the time.

 

 

And you can make the argument that the Bobcats in particular are overdue. Just 10 franchises have never won the first pick in the draft. The Bobcats are one of them.

• The Bobcats clearly need the No. 1 pick. But so do the Nets. Add Anthony Davis on this team alongside Deron Williams, Gerald Wallace andBrook Lopez and the Nets have a very talented team going forward. Or, if they want, they could use Davis as bait to land Dwight Howard in a trade. If I’m Brooklyn, I’d hang onto Davis. He’s cheaper, younger and isn’t coming off back surgery. But given the direction the Nets have been heading, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them try to swing another deal for Howard.

   

   

   

  If the Nets don’t get the No. 1 pick, they’ll be jonesing for the No. 2 or No. 3 pick. If they don’t land any of the three, the pick goes to the Blazers as part of the Wallace trade. The Nets have a 25.2 percent chance of getting one of the top 3 picks.

   

  • The Golden State Warriors would also love to move up to No. 1. However, they are holding their breath that no team behind them in the lottery order moves into the top 3. If the Toronto Raptors, Detroit Pistons, New Orleans Hornets (via Timberwolves), Portland Trail Blazers, Milwaukee Bucks, Phoenix Suns or Houston Rockets move into the Top 3, the Warriors will slide to No. 8 and will have to convey the pick to the Jazz. There’s just a 27 percent chance that one of those teams moves ahead of them, but it’s enough of a threat that the Warriors have been trying for weeks to strike a deal with the Utah Jazz that guarantees that they keep their pick.

  • New Orleans has two lottery picks this year for the first time in franchise history (including their years in Charlotte). The Blazers also will have multiple first-round picks if the Nets don’t end up in the top three.

   

   

  • The NBA Draft Lottery began in 1985. Since that time, every team in the NBA has had at least one lottery pick. The San Antonio Spurs have had the longest lottery drought among all teams, having not been in the lottery since selecting Tim Duncan No. 1 overall in 1997.

   

   

  • The Sacramento Kings are in the lottery for the sixth straight year, the longest active streak.

   

   

  • The Houston Rockets have a 0.5 percent chance of winning the lottery, the third straight year they have held the worst odds. In addition, this is the third straight time and fifth time in the last 12 years the Rockets have missed the playoffs despite having a winning record. Still, don’t feel sorry for Houston. The Rockets have had the No. 1 pick more than any team in the league.

  • Everyone fawns over lottery picks, but take a look at the list of guys along the right of this blog who played well in the NBA despite falling out of the lottery. There will certainly be value to be had outside of the top 14 picks.

 

 

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