Renardo Sidney

And-Ones: Sidney, D-League, Turner

The top performing players during the 2015 NBA D-League Elite mini-camp were Aaron Craft, Adonis Thomas, Shawn Jones, and Casey Prather, Adam Johnson of D-League Digest tweets. The NBA D-League’s camp offers standouts from the past season another chance to perform in front of NBA team personnel in advance of Summer Leagues and 2015 training camps, Brian Kotloff of NBA.com writes. “It’s really a great thing for our league to showcase the players,” Elite Mini Camp director Bob MacKinnon, a five-year NBA D-League coaching veteran, said. “Every NBA team will be represented with scouts in these two days. We changed the schedule to accommodate what NBA scouts have told us they want to see.

Here’s more from around the league:

  • Eight NBA teams are attending a workout for former Mississippi State center Renardo Sidney tonight in Chicago, Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports reports (Twitter link). The big man is a free agent and went undrafted back in 2012.
  • The NBA draft combine allows teams to examine more than just the players’ on court abilities, and in some cases these secondary observations can mean the difference between a player getting drafted or needing to scramble to snag a training camp invite, A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com writes. “The interviews are a big part of this week,” said a Western Conference official. “For teams, a lot of times it’s the first chance they get to sit down with players and find out the answers to some questions that might mean the difference between that kid staying on their board or taken off entirely.
  • Texas big man Myles Turner has a chance to contribute immediately and possibly become a building block for a future contending team, Michael Scotto of Sheridan Hoops writes. Turner is looking to make a splash in the league, saying, “Definitely a long-term goal is to get Rookie of the Year and get into the NBA All-Star Weekend. As far as short-term goals, I’d like to be able to have a great role within the team I’m drafted by to be able to go out there and get quality minutes instead of riding the bench the whole entire rookie season.” The 19-year-old is the No. 10 overall prospect according to Ford, while Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress slots him at No. 11. You can view Hoops Rumors’ expanded profile of Turner here.

Draft Updates: Monday

Earlier this morning, we unveiled the first version of our 2012 mock draft, projecting every pick from No. 1 (Anthony Davis) to No. 30 (Quincy Miller). We'll publish one more mock next week, before draft day, and until then, we'll be keeping tabs on all the latest draft-related news and rumors. Here are today's updates, with the newest items added at the top throughout the day….

  • The Pistons have a big workout scheduled for next Monday, with Jared Sullinger, Tyler Zeller, Meyers Leonard, John Henson, Terrence Jones, and Perry Jones III expected to attend, tweets ESPN.com's Chad Ford.
  • Harrison Barnes and a pair of possible second-round candidates will work out for the Wizards tomorrow, the team announced.

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Draft Updates: Thursday

The countdown until the 2012 draft is down to two weeks, and this week has been heavy on workouts and trade speculation. We'll track the latest news and rumors on both fronts, along with a handful of other draft-related items, right here. New updates will be added to the top of the page throughout the day….

  • According to their official website, the Pacers will work out Evan Fournier, Ashton Gibbs, Travis Hyman, John Jenkins, Josh Owens, and Tony Wroten Jr. on Friday. 

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Draft Updates: Sidney, Waiters

The flurry of underclassmen declaring themselves eligible for the 2012 NBA draft has continued well into Monday evening. Earlier today, Duke's Austin Rivers announced his decision to leave school for the NBA after only one season and sign with an agent. Let's see who else will be joining him in what is shaping up to be one of the deeper drafts in recent memory.

  • Mississippi State forward Renardo Sidney will forgo his senior season after signing with an agent and declaring himself eligible for the draft. Sidney had an impressive sophomore season with 14.2 PPG and 7.6 RPG, but saw his production slip as a junior as the Bulldogs went 21-12 on the season. The 6-foot-10 forward dealt with eligibility issues earlier in his career and was involved in a fight with a teammate this past season during a tournament in Hawaii.
  • Syracuse guard Dion Waiters announced on Monday his decision to leave school early and enter the draft. The sophomore from Philadelphia nearly doubled his offensive output from his freshman year by averaging 12.6 PPG while leading the Big East in steals for a Syracuse team that reached the Elite Eight during the NCAA tournament. Lauded for his gutsy leadership during an especially tumultuous start to Syracuse's season, Waiters projects as a mid to late first-round draft pick by many draft experts.