A pair of no-shows took the lustre off the Raptors’ workout of potential draft picks yesterday at the Air Canada Centre.
With Darrell Arthur, a 6-foot-9 forward from Kansas, and David Padgett, a 6-foot-11 centre out of Louisville, unable to attend, the workout consisted mostly of second-round prospects.
The best of the lot appeared to be guard DeMarcus Nelson, a 6-foot-4 captain of the Duke Blue Devils.
Arthur was claiming to have a hamstring problem that kept him from attending the workout, but there was a suggestion that Arthur is avoiding Toronto altogether.
“We’ve tried to bring him back about five times,” Raptors director of player personnel Jim Kelly said. “He has been, let’s say elusive, for lack of a better term.”
Having said that, Kelly reiterated Arthur remains a “priority” for the Raptors.
“He’s a guy who is projected to go (about 17th, when the Raptors pick), who played well at the end of the year, a player we would like to get a better look at, but it hasn’t been so easy.”
Any disappointment might be forgotten as early as Thursday when the Raptors are scheduled to bring in a group that includes France’s Nicolas Batum, one of the highly-touted internationals in the draft.
“I think he’s in our range,” Kelly said of Batum. “He could be gone before us because of his athletic package. He’s going to measure out at 6-foot-9 and that’s very intriguing. He’s very young and he’s going to need some time, so do we want a direct impact player or are we willing to wait some time for him?”
The answer, if you’re asking Mitchell, would no doubt be a plea for some direct impact. Not that he’s making the decisions. If it were up to him, golf wouldn’t be a four-letter word in the minds of image-conscious executives. Mitchell, when he has made public his occasional in-season 18, has received heat from upper management in the pre-Colangelo era. And Colangelo may or may not have been enraged after Mitchell allegedly swung the sticks during Toronto’s first-round playoff loss in the home of Golf Central.
Yesterday, Mitchell said he allowed Jason Kapono, the Raptors’ resident golf guru (and little-used small forward), to work on his handicap during road trips for sound reasons. The coach would rather have his players frequent golf clubs than nightclubs.
“It’s the guy who gets off the plane and goes to take a nap so he can stay out until 4 o’clock in the morning – that’s the guy I’m worried about,” said Mitchell. “I’m not worried about the guy who gets off the plane and heads straight to the golf course. That guy’s back in his room at 7 o’clock.”
Jeffrey Ferguson apparently does not mind being a second–or rather, a seventh or eighth–choice.
It did not bother the Toronto native that his hometown team, the Raptors, only called him for a tryout after a couple of more prime prospects dropped out because of injury.
When you last played for a tiny liberal arts school in Kentucky called Pikeville College, after transferring to Wayne State from Missouri, you are not exactly in a position to be choosy.
“I was working out Thursday at 9:30 in the morning. I came home after practice, got a call at like 3 o’clock, and my agent said, ‘We got a workout with Toronto,’ ” Ferguson said with a sly smile. “I was like, ‘Yessssss,’ ”
But the gap between these teams and the Raptors is not large enough to inspire awe. Maybe that’s a good thing for the prospects of Raptor success. Maybe they can improve from within like the Lakers did, and then add a good Gasol-like piece to take them to the top. And maybe that climb to the top is not so far off with the West clearly falling back some, and the East not really looking overwhelming yet (if the Hawks get the chance to erase only one embarrassing loss and somehow make it a win, Beantown gets burned to the ground after the first round instead of after winning “the Finals”).
Garbo made some bad choices that have left him in this spot. I don’t hold any ill will towards the guy. But the fact remains if he had have listened to the Raptors medical staff he may not be in the spot he is now. If he does decide to play in the Olympics in China it may be an audition for him to save his NBA Career. If he performs well some team may take a chance on him and at least invite him to training camp in the fall. I think as I have said in the past that Garbo was a borderline player as far as athletic ability and his injury has made him to a point that he is now not athletic enough to compete on a NBA level. Hopefully I am wrong and he gets another chance because he is a very nice guy from all I could tell in his time here. But at the end of the day he has to look at himself as the cause of his misfortune.
17. TORONTO RAPTORS: Joe Alexander: 6’8, 220, SF, Jr., West Virginia
He’s a dynamic scorer, but he’s not a great long-range shooter or a capable defender, and he may be a bit of a tweener. Alexander has a very high ceiling and a very low floor, so he’s risky if taken in the lottery. He’s a good choice here, however.
Well, it’s not exactly like bringing in Wade, Hinrich, Ford and Bosh for a look, something the club did in preparation for 2003’s draft. But there are still some interesting players in this group so let’s take a look at each one in turn.
17. TORONTO Nick Batum, 6’8″ SF, France
Note: We weren’t able to get ahold of the actual Toronto GM on this one, but we figured an international wing with running and scoring potential would fit right in with the Raptors.
Sure, he invested hundreds of hours into earning a business degree, but Calgary’s Kyle Landry isn’t quite ready to start scouring the classifieds for a desk job.
The Toronto Raptors are going to give him a shot to prove he can set up an office in the paint at hoops’ highest level.
Landry, 22, is slated to work out for Canada’s NBA squad next week, an audition he hopes to will lead to a summer league tryout or — even better — a training camp invite.
“If I can parlay all these things into bigger and better things for next year, then I’ll be pretty excited,” said Landry, fresh off his senior season at Northern Arizona University, where he led the Lumberjacks to within one victory of scoring an NCAA tournament berth.
“Just being able to continue to play basketball after four years of school, it’s pretty cool. It’s a lot better than most people have to do after college — try to find a real job.”
Landry has been training at ING Academies in Florida, where Sacramento Kings guard Kevin Martin and Chicago Bulls teammates Luol Deng and Tyrus Thomas are already honing their skills for next season and several other college grads are hoping to catch their big break.
Landry’s agent is pushing his client as an unpolished replica of Kings centre Brad Miller, who can score, rebound, play stingy defence and has a deft passing touch for a big man. It’s up to the 6-ft.-9, 235-lb. Bishop Grandin grad to prove he’s right on the money.
“I’m sure I’ll be a little bit anxious, but once you get playing, it’s just basketball. It’s just another day of playing basketball,” he said of his upcoming tryout.
17) The Toronto Raptors take 20 year old Nicola Batum, Internation SF (6’8″, 214 lbs.) out of Sarthe Basket. Status: Out of Version 1.0 to 17th This team needs a good player at this position, and Batum is an overall well skilled young man that can fit the needs of the Raptors. There might be better scorers, but the passing skills and defensive attributes make this player a great pick up so low.
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