I am sure there are many players coming out of college that hope they don’t get chosen by the Raptors just because of going to a new country and everything that comes of it.
Living in Canada I find it hard to understand but at the same time if I got a call tomorrow to go and show off my skills in New Mexico or something I would be less than thrilled about it.
Toronto has a young team on the up swing, a fan base that supports the club and a city that has so much to offer. Would he rather get drafted by Charlotte and play in a half full arena?
Arthur is a great athlete and would offer Toronto just what it needs to improve. This kind of story could put a bad mark on his stock for other teams checking him out as well.
On a final note, RaptorsHQ has re-designed our Jamario Moon site for the upcoming draft. It’s now up and running at www.raptorsdrafthq.com so be sure to check it out. We’ve posted all workout pieces there including video footage of each prospect and we’ll continue to do so as we near draft day.
We’ll also be posting upcoming audio footage from this week’s workouts in addition to various other interactive features.
Bender hit the national scene when he broke Michael Jordan’s scoring record in the 1999 McDonald’s All-America Game, scoring 31 points in the televised game that is considered the marquee event for America’s most talented prep players. The Toronto Raptors were so enamored that they made Bender the fifth overall pick of the NBA draft and immediately traded his rights to the Indiana Pacers, who signed him to a three-year, $7 million contract.
Over those three years, Bender showed enough promise, despite chronic knee problems, that the Pacers rewarded him with a four-year, $28.5 million deal.
“I’ve never seen the combination of a 7-footer who could shoot from the outside, handle the ball and jump as high as he could,” Donnie Walsh, the Pacers’ CEO, told reporters in 2003. “He’s the only guy I’ve had who stopped practice with the things he did. I thought he would be a great player. Every coach I put him with couldn’t believe his talent.”
But his knees ached constantly and, says Bender, “It was such a struggle to play, my love and passion for the game got lower and lower. I was ready to move on.”
When Bender announced his retirement in February 2006, the Pacers said the remainder of his contract would be paid through an insurance policy.
Representatives of 17 NBA teams (including numerous GMs) congregated this past weekend at the practice facility of the Golden State Warriors to take in 24 (mostly first and second round) prospects over a two day stretch. Participants included Brandon Rush, Nicolas Batum, Marreese Speights, Courtney Lee, Chris Douglas-Roberts, Alexis Ajinca, DeVon Hardin, Bill Walker, Ryan Anderson, Jason Thompson, Richard Hendrix, Gary Forbes, Joey Dorsey, Trent Plaisted, J.R. Giddens, Kyle Weaver, Jamont Gordon, Sonny Weems, Darnell Jackson, Rudy Mbemba, Ron Steele, Giorgi Shermadini and Josh Akognon.
A couple of injuries early on changed the dynamics of the workout early, including a very unfortunate setback to Bill Walker at seemingly the worst moment possible. Walker hurt his knee during the three man weave early on and was unable to make it past stretching, forcing him to pull out. An MRI conducted later (which is now circulating amongst teams) concluded that he has a partial tear in his meniscus, which will force him to sit for at least three weeks and not allow him to work out for any more NBA teams from now until the draft.
Up until now, he has only managed to visit the Toronto Raptors (where he looked extremely nervous and was tentative, but checked out just fine on his physical) and Detroit Pistons (where he was reportedly outstanding), meaning NBA teams will have much less information to go off on draft night than they would likely prefer.
Also withdrawing from the workouts were Rudy Mbemba (hip flexor) and Nicolas Batum (halfway through after being poked in the eye).
A workout of this nature can be extremely important to a player’s draft stock considering the amount of teams present. We spoke to numerous people (both NBA executives and participants) afterwards to get a feel for what went on there. The three names that kept coming up more than others when asked who looked good were: Richard Hendrix, Brandon Rush and Courtney Lee.
Brandon Rush also drew some extremely high praise, as his size, length and skill-level were mentioned as big pluses, as was the fact that he can play two positions and looks to be in terrific shape athletically. He played strong defense, shot the ball well from outside, and even showed some nice craftiness with a few hook shots inside. Most executives we spoke with have Rush going either at 15 (Phoenix) or 17 (Toronto) in their personal mock drafts, but there is a chance that a team like Seattle or Cleveland for example could jump up ahead of them and take him at 13th if they can strike a deal with Portland (whose pick is clearly on the block).
Chris Douglas-Roberts was reportedly “just OK” in the workout, which is similar feedback to what we’ve heard consistently over the past few weeks from different cities he’s been to. As we’ve discussed in the past, he’s not proven to be a great workout player, which might be pushing his terrific season with Memphis a little further out of teams’ minds
Nicolas Batum was supposedly playing very well until he got hurt mid-way through.
Hibbert has gotten some strong reviews from teams who have seen him so far, as he appears to be in excellent shape and is reminding people why he was considered a lock for the lottery just a year ago, running the floor well (better than his peers), finishing with either hand around the basket, and shooting the ball better than expected from outside. Not surprisingly, the 21-year old Georgetown product has been extremely impressive off the court as well—which is an underrated element in this process.
With the seventeenth pick in the draft Ori and the Toronto Raptors select:
Kosta Koufos, C, THE Ohio State University
They say good things come in 3s, so the Raps need another another center in the Euro-mold to go Rasho and Andrea. Kosta should work perfectly, ensuring that the Cavs never play a Game 7 in Toronto. I’m not saying he’s bad. I just don’t want him. If he goes before #19, that’s one less trick Danny Ferry has in his trunk that worries me.
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