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While much of the talk leading into any NBA draft tends to focus on which players will be selected at the top of the board, those second round selections can prove to be valuable as well.
Last year Golden State managed to buy a second-round pick from Chicago, and Jordan Bell would prove to be a solid addition for the NBA champions.
And the season prior the winner of the NBA Rookie of the Year award was Malcolm Brogdon, who after a very good career at Virginia was available for the Milwaukee Bucks to select with the 36th overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft.
Who are some players projected to go in the second round Thursday night that could develop into steals?
Below are seven worth keeping in mind.
Interestingly enough, there are those who believed that Brown could have been a first-round pick had he entered the draft after his freshman season. A preseason second team All-ACC selection, Brown appeared in just 19 games as a left foot injury suffered in January sidelined him for the remainder of the season. While on the court Brown was a key cog in the Hurricane attack, averaging 11.4 points, 7.1 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game. Brown’s shooting percentages — 41.5 percent from the field, 26.7 percent from three — weren’t great, but he’s a versatile guard who can be used either on or off the ball. Brown’s also a solid defender, which is something that he’ll need to carry over to the next level if he’s to become a fixture in the NBA.
Speaking of defense, that end of the floor has been a talking point when it comes to Carter throughout his career at West Virginia. Carter racked up steals as his collegiate career progressed, averaging 3.0 per game this past season, and while “Press Virginia” did help with that it wasn’t solely the system that made this possible. Giving maximum effort defensively while also getting the second unit into its offense are keys for backup point guards in the NBA, and it should also help Carter’s case that his three-point shooting improved over the course of his WVU career.
This spring was the second time in which Diallo went through the pre-draft process, with the first coming on the heels of his being redshirted after joining the Kentucky program in January 2017. Diallo certainly had his struggles offensively during conference play, but John Calipari did not give up on the freshman. Diallo’s a highly athletic guard who, with some time, can develop into a major steal if he lands in the right situation. Diallo does have some work to do when it comes to the consistency of his perimeter shot, but he’s the kind of prospect who can thrive if selected by a team that can afford to be patient with his development.
Hall is an experienced player who sets up to be a value pick in the mid- to latter portion of the second round. The versatile shooting guard averaged 11.7 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game as a senior, and he also shot 43.2 percent from three on nearly four attempts per game. Hall shot no better than 37.2 percent from three in any of his three seasons prior, and that number was produced during a junior season in which he attempted 2.5 three-pointers per game. Add in his ability on the defensive end of the floor, and Hall sets up to be a valuable addition to a playoff-caliber team in need of additional perimeter depth.
Despite averaging 18.1 points per game and shooting the ball well at all three levels, the general consensus seems to be that Trier will either go late in the second round or not be selected at all. His defensive numbers (defensive rating of 108.4) may have a lot to do with this, but it’s important to note that Trier wasn’t the only Wildcat to have issues on that end of the floor last season. Given the way in which Trier can shoot the ball, as he made 50.0 percent of his shots from the field and 38.0 percent from three while also shooting better than 86 percent from the foul line, he could prove to be a good pickup for a team that may be looking to add a player who can compete for a roster spot as opposed to going the “draft and stash” route. And if he isn’t selected, Trier shouldn’t have to wait too long before those summer league offers start to roll in.
The biggest issue for Hervey has been past injuries, as he has suffered torn ACL’s in both of his knees. Hervey injured his right knee prior to his senior year of high school, and he would tear his left ACL during his sophomore season at UTA. It should be noted when it comes to Hervey’s medical situation that in his final two seasons at UTA, he missed a total of just two games so that may not be a major concern. Measured at 6-feet, 7.75-inches tall (with shoes) at last month’s combine, Hervey’s wingspan of 7-feet, 3.5-inches in length was among the longest posted by the power forwards measured. If he can continue to improve as a perimeter shooter, Hervey is a combo forward who should hear his name called Thursday night.
Ahead of the 2017-18 season Jackson projected to be a first-round pick. That all changed due to a torn labrum in his right shoulder, which Jackson suffered in August and attempted to play through before ultimately shutting it down in December. As a result Jackson sets up to be a steal for some team due to his ability to play both inside and out. Jackson’s shooting percentages dipped considerably last season, but that was due in large part to the shoulder injury. Jackson was used as a mismatch four during his time at Maryland, but he projects as a three at the NBA level due to his height (6 feet, 6.75 inches tall at the combine). Jackson’s ability to play both inside and out, combined with his slipping down draft boards due to the labrum injury, makes him a player whose value exceeds where he lands in the order.
NORMAL, Ill. (AP) — Former Chicago Bulls point guard Chris Duhon has joined the staff of Illinois State University as an assistant coach.
Illinois State coach Dan Muller announced Duhon’s appointment Monday, saying he brings “a high level of on-the-court experience and success” to the university’s basketball program.
Duhon resigned as an assistant coach at Marshall in January 2017 after his arrest for driving on a revoked license. His driver’s license was revoked for driving under the influence in 2015.
Duhon starred in college at Duke and helped lead the Blue Devils to the 2001 national championship, leading the team in steals and minutes played. He was selected by the Bulls on the second round of the 2004 NBA draft and played four seasons in Chicago.
He retired from the NBA in 2013 after also playing for the Knicks, Magic and Lakers.
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More AP college basketball: http://collegebasketball.ap.org and http://www.twitter.com/AP_Top25
A new series of commercials being released today by Foot Locker feature the stars of the NBA draft getting roasted.
Well, “stars”.
Because the commercial that is going to get the most play is of LiAngelo Ball, who never actually played in college. Ball, if you remember, was arrested for shoplifting while his UCLA team was on a trip to China. He was eventually dismissed from the program and ended up playing for a year in Lithuania before entering the NBA draft.
And, well, they touch on all of that in this commercial:
The other player to get roasted was Trae Young, who was a sensation for the first half of the college basketball season before a dreadful finish saw him losing 12 of his last 16 games. It was ugly, and Foot Locker made sure to remind him of it:
I appreciate the effort here from Foot Locker, but I have to say that these just are not all that funny.
Michael Porter Jr. told the Will Cain Show on Monday that he’s “feeling great” and that the information that made the rounds last week was “exaggerated a lot”.
Porter, who missed almost his entire freshman season after undergoing surgery on his back, cancelled a workout that was supposed to take place on Friday due to issues in his hip. It was reported to be spasms, bad enough that he wasn’t able to get out of bed, according to a report from ESPN. It’s worth noting that the original injury he was said to be dealing with at Missouri was a hip injury, not a back injury.
Porter eventually attended Friday’s team workout, although he didn’t workout, he only allowed teams to have their doctors evaluate his back.
“I got evaluated,” Porter said. “I let the doctors come in and do all their tests on me. I’m feeling good. I think the teams are comfortable, but I might get a couple workouts in.”
“It was just a little sore, so I told [my agent] my hip was kind of sore and he just wanted to shut it down for a couple of days,” Porter said. “And then people took that and kind of ran with it, saying, you know, my hip was injured, I couldn’t get out of bed. None of that was really true. I was just sore and I wanted to take a couple of days off. So that’s all that was.”
Porter added that his back is “normal. I have no issues with it. There’s no risk of reinjury [and] every MRI that I’ve done is perfect.”
In three of the last five seasons, the NBA’s Rookie of the Year award was given to a player that was picked outside of the top five.
Damian Lillard was the No. 6 pick in the 2012 NBA Draft.
Michael Carter-Williams went 11th in 2013.
Malcolm Brogdon? He was a second round pick in 2016.
This season, Donovan Mitchell, who was selected 13th in the 2017 NBA Draft, would be a shoe-in for Rookie of the Year if Ben Simmons had not been hurt last season.
Kyle Kuzma, the 27th pick in the draft, will be a First-Team All-Rookie selection.
So with that in mind, let’s take a look at 12 players projected to be picked outside of the lottery in the 2018 NBA Draft are going to out-perform their draft position.
I know I said outside of the lottery and I know that Williams is projected by many to be scooped up in the back-end of the lottery, but he deserves a mention here because anyone getting him outside of the top ten will be getting a steal.
The reason for that is simple: Williams has the perfect set of skills to play the five in the NBA. At 6-foot-10 with a 7-foot-5 wingspan and the kind of athleticism that will leave him in danger of concussing himself on the backboard, Williams has every tool needed to be a rim-running, lob-catching, rim-protecting center in today’s NBA.
NBA scouts saw this in Williams prior to last season. That’s why he was projected as a lottery pick early on in his freshman season, but the combination of returning to school, playing on a team where the pieces did not fit together and dealing with some suspensions and injuries throughout the year limited his production. The biggest hindrance? For a player that needs space to operate, Williams played on a team that had no floor-spacing whose go-to option offensively was Tyler Davis, a 6-foot-10 land-warrior that did all of his damage within eight-feet of the rim.
Put another way, playing in the NBA, where spacing is plentiful and point guards excel at throwing lobs up at the rim, will be better for Williams’ production than playing in college.
One other note on Williams: One of the biggest knocks on him is his work ethic. Texas A&M head coach Billy Kennedy told me before the season started that the one thing that Williams had been working the hardest on was learning how to work hard. That’s a major reason why there are concerns about whether or not Williams will hit his upside or develop a three-point shot.
He can add nothing to his repertoire between now and when he hits free agency and Williams will, in my mind, be somewhere between Clint Capela and Tristan Thompson by then. If he drops all the way to the Wizards at No. 15, John Wall’s celebration will make Alex Ovechkin’s look humble.
Everyone loves hot takes, so here’s a scorcher for you: If De’Anthony Melton had been allowed to play this season, if he had not gotten caught up in the FBI’s investigation into college basketball, we would he talking about his as a potential lottery pick. Melton is a swiss-army knife. He’s 6-foot-3 with a 6-foot-8 wingspan, an athletic defender that averaged 2.8 steals and 1.5 blocks per 40 minutes as a freshman. His size and length should allow him to defend multiple positions, and his ability to create — 5.1 assists per 40 minutes as a freshman — makes him an intriguing and versatile talent. He was the only player in the NCAA to average 10 points, five boards, five assists, 2.5 steals and 1.5 blocks per 40 minutes in 2016-17, something that has only been done seven times in NCAA history.
His big question mark is his ability to shoot the ball. That was the major reason he opted to return to school for his sophomore season; he made just 21 threes in 36 games at USC. Melton spent some time working out with Drew Hanlen, who helped reconfigure the shooting stroke of Jayson Tatum and Mo Bamba and is now working with Markelle Fultz to get his shot fixed, and had a full year to do nothing but get his shot right. It looked improved at the combine, and sources at USC say that he looked much-improved before he opted to leave school.
Melton is likely always going to be somewhat limited offensively, but I see him as a perfect fit as a role player alongside a ball-dominant lead guard.
I love Holiday as a mid-to-late first round pick in this draft, and I think he has the potential to thrive as the first guard off the bench for a playoff team even as a rookie. The season he had as a junior — 20.3 points, 5.8 assists, 3.7 boards, 1.3 steals — has been underrated because of the disappointment that UCLA was. He’s a point guard by trade, and capable of playing against second-units in the NBA, but as a career 42 percent three-point shooter that spent last season playing alongside Lonzo Ball, he’s also quite capable of playing off-the-ball as a floor-spacer.
He’s just a shade under 6-foot-1, but he’s a good athlete with a 6-foot-7.5 wingspan and is a better defender than he’ll get credit for because of Steve Alford’s inability to coach a team to get stops. Throw in his NBA pedigree — he is the younger brother of NBA player Jrue and Justin — and I think you’re looking at a guy that will spend a decade in the league.
I love Hutchison’s potential as a scorer at the next level. He has positional size — 6-foot-7 with a 7-foot wingspan — and he spent the last year working on improving his shooting stroke and his toughness. His fluidity and shot-making should translate well to the NBA, and I think that he has the physical tools to hold his own on the defensive end of the floor. A late-bloomer with size, athleticism and the ability to shoot the ball should be something that playoff teams are looking for. I’m not sure that he is a starter at the NBA level, but I think he can help a playoff as a role player off the bench next season.
All four of these guys fit the mold for what NBA teams are looking for out of a player at the end of the first round or the beginning of the second round. Players with positional versatility, size, length and shooting ability.
To me, Huerter is the best of the group. At 6-foot-7, he has the height to make up for what he lacks in length. He’s probably the best shooter of the group, and he has a much better feel for how to play than the others; he averaged 3.4 assists as a sophomore. Toughness and his impact defensively are the question marks, but what he’ll bring offensively will help to offset some of that.
Huerter, like Okogie, is also very young, younger than Mo Bamba, Deandre Ayton and Michael Porter Jr., and that adds to their intrigue. Okogie is just 6-foot-4, but his 7-foot wingspan, athleticism and ability to knock down perimeter shots makes him an ideal 3-and-D prospect, and his age is the reason why he’s likely to get picked ahead of Thomas, whose profile — 6-foot-3, 6-foot-10 wingspan, knockdown shooter — isn’t all that different.
Frazier is the x-factor. He’s the biggest (6-foot-7, 7-foot-2 wingspan) and the most athletic, but he’s also the rawest. The tools are there, and the 38 percent he shot from three this past season is promising, but sources around the Tulane program have said that number may be a bit fluky, like the 38 percent Josh Jackson shot from three as a freshman at Kansas. He’s a risk, but in the late-20s or 30s, he is certainly worth the risk.
Alkins hasn’t gotten much as any of the four players I just listed, but he’s a guy I think could sneak up on some people. He’s strong and athletic with that New York City toughness in his blood. He’s not a great three-point shooter, but he’s good. He’s not an elite defender, but he’s good. I do think he ends up in an NBA rotation by the end of next season, which is a pretty good return for a guy projected as a early-to-mid second round pick.
Hall is a strong, 6-foot-4 guard with a 6-foot-8 wingspan and the kind of defensive toughness you know you are getting from a product of Tony Bennett’s system at Virginia. He shot 43 percent from three as a senior while averaging 3.1 assists. He can defend multiple positions, he can play off the ball and he is a playmaker when the ball is in his hands. As a mid-to-late second round pick, Hall seems to me to be a great fit as a back-end-of-the-rotation guard that will come on the cheap. I think he makes an NBA roster within two years.
Brunson is so smart and so efficient and such a good shooter that I cannot imagine him not finding success in the NBA. Before Quinn Cook had the season that he had, I would have pegged Golden State as the perfect landing spot for Brunson. Now, I think he’ll probably slide to the second round, and if the Suns don’t land Aaron Holiday with the 16th pick, I think that might be a perfect landing spot for Brunson at 31. Either way, I think that his floor is Fred VanVleet, who averaged 8.6 points and 3.2 assists while shooting 41 percent from three as Toronto’s back-up point guard.
Golden State needs to find a player that can simply fill a role on the best team in NBA history, and they’ve proven in recent years that they excel at finding those kind of talents. Damian Jones was a miss, but Kevon Looney, Pat McCaw and Jordan Bell all played key roles for the Warriors during title runs the last two seasons. None of them are ever going to be great NBA players, but they don’t have to be: They are on a roster with two MVPs, three of the best shooters in NBA history and four of the top 15-20 players in the NBA today. All they have to do is the job they’re asked to do, and to do so on the cheap.
Whoever the Warriors get with the 28th pick should be able to do the same, whether that’s someone on this list — Thomas, Okogie and Brunson all make sense to me — or a player like Grayson Allen, a shooter that played both guard positions in college and is older and more physically ready for the league.
