Draft Workouts: T. Young, Cavs, Blazers, Warriors
Potential top-10 pick Trae Young conducted a “secret” workout for the Cavaliers on Saturday, reports Jonathan Givony of ESPN.com (via Twitter). Givony, echoing what Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com wrote earlier today, suggests that Michael Porter Jr. may be Cleveland’s top target at No. 8.
However, if Porter is no longer available, the Cavaliers’ decision could come down to Young vs. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, according to Givony, who notes that he has the team taking Gilgeous-Alexander in his latest mock draft.
Here are a few more updates on pre-draft workouts from around the NBA:
- Anfernee Simons (IMG Academy), Dzanan Musa (Cedevita), Thomas Welsh (UCLA), Brandon McCoy (UNLV), Jaylen Barford (Arkansas), and Jacobi Boykins (Louisiana Tech) auditioned for the Trail Blazers on Tuesday (Twitter link via Casey Holdahl). It was Simons’ second workout for the Blazers, who passed on a workout with the Grizzlies to visit Portland again (Twitter link via Chris Herrington). Simons also worked out twice for the Lakers and Magic, tweets Jason Quick of NBC Sports Northwest.
- Jerome Robinson will have an individual workout with the Wizards on Wednesday, the team announced today in a press release.
- The Warriors‘ group workout on Tuesday featured Trevon Bluiett (Xavier), Gary Clark (Cincinnati), Bonzie Colson (Notre Dame), MiKyle McIntosh (Oregon), Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk (Kansas), and Desi Rodriguez (Seton Hall), per Mark Medina of The San Jose Mercury News (Twitter link). Golden State has the No. 28 pick and will reportedly push to buy a pick early in the second round — at least a couple of today’s visitors could be candidates in that range.
- Keita Bates-Diop, a potential target for the Timberwolves at No. 20, worked out for Minnesota on Monday, tweets Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News.
- The Pistons brought in six more prospects for a pre-draft workout on Tuesday, according to the team (Twitter link). Elijah Bryant (BYU), Obi Enechionyia (Temple), Zach Lofton (New Mexico State), Yante Maten (Georgia), E.C. Matthews (Rhode Island), and Nuni Omot (Baylor) earned a look from Detroit.
Eastern Draft Notes: Sixers, Bulls, Diallo, Raptors
The Sixers, who hold the 10th and 26th picks in the 2018 NBA draft, continue to take a closer look at potential early- and late-first-round picks. According to Michael Scotto of The Athletic (Twitter links), Philadelphia will have an interesting pair of prospects participating in a group workout next Monday when they bring in Miami guard Lonnie Walker and MSU forward Miles Bridges. Both players are considered potential lottery selections, making them options at No. 10.
Duke’s Grayson Allen, a possible candidate for the No. 26 pick, participated in a workout today for the Sixers, notes Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. However, Allen – who will also work out for the Celtics on Friday, per Steve Bulpett of The Boston Herald (Twitter link) – wasn’t the most notable person present at the session.
According to Pompey, embattled president of basketball operations Bryan Colangelo was in attendance at today’s workout. While that doesn’t mean that the Sixers have made a decision one way or the other on Colangelo’s future, it certainly doesn’t seem like bad news for him.
Here’s more on pre-draft workouts from around the Eastern Conference:
- Miles Bridges (MSU), Donte DiVincenzo (Villanova), De’Anthony Melton (USC), Keita Bates-Diop (Ohio State), and Kaiser Gates (Xavier) worked out for the Bulls today, according to the team. Lonnie Walker, whose workout with Chicago was previously reported, was also present.
- Hamidou Diallo, a Queens native, will stick close to home for this weekend’s workouts, according to Sean Deveney of The Sporting News, who tweets that the Kentucky prospect works out for the Nets on Friday and Knicks on Saturday.
- Notre Dame guard Matt Farrell has a couple more pre-draft workouts coming up, with a Bulls audition scheduled for Friday and the Hornets sometime next week, tweets Josh Newman of The Asbury Park Press.
- Although the Raptors don’t have any picks in this year’s draft, they continue to hold workouts with an eye on potential undrafted prospects. Today’s session featured Andrew Rowsey (Marquette), Kassius Robertson (Missouri), Darius Thompson (Western Kentucky), Jacobi Boykins (Louisiana Tech), Cameron Reynolds (Tulane), and Justin Tillman (VCU), according to the club (Twitter link).
NBA Confirms 182 Early Entrants For 2017 Draft
With the deadline for early entrants to enter the 2017 NBA draft now behind us, the league has officially released the list of this year’s early entry candidates, and it’s a long one. According to the NBA’s announcement, 182 players have declared early for the draft — 137 college players and 45 international prospects. That’s a new record.
As was the case a year ago, NCAA rules changes allow underclassmen to “test the waters” before officially committing to the 2017 NBA draft. NCAA early entrants can withdraw their names any time up until May 24 while maintaining their NCAA eligibility, as long as they haven’t hired agents. That means that prospects testing the waters can take part in the NBA draft combine from May 9-14 – if invited – and they can work out for individual teams in the coming weeks.
International early entrants can also withdraw their names from the draft pool within the next several weeks. The final draft list will be set after the early entrant withdrawal deadline for international and other non-NCAA players passes on June 12.
A year ago, a whopping 162 NCAA and international players declared their intent to enter the draft early, but 91 of those players eventually withdrew. This year should follow a similar pattern, so the group of eligible draftees for 2017 figures to be reduced significantly by June 12.
Listed below are the current early entrants, according to the NBA. Players whose intent to declare wasn’t previously reported on Hoops Rumors are listed in italics.