Gearing Up For Draft Day

Today was the final day of the NBA's official pre-draft camp in Orlando. Neither of Wisconsin's standout seniors, Alando Tucker and Kammron Taylor, were in attendance. While Taylor was uninvited, Tucker may have caught some fans off guard by turning down his invitation to the camp.

But don't take their absences for inactivity. Both players have been hitting the gym to hone their skills in the meantime.

The general consensus was that Tucker could not have improved his stock much by attending the camp and possibly exposing weaknesses to a wide audience. After a hot start in his final season, Tucker was being mentioned as a player of the year candidate in addition to seeing his draft stock rise into the lottery area. However, despite an overall stellar senior campaign, Tucker cooled considerably heading into the off-season. Tucker worked out with a few other top prospects in Chicago this week, but his shooting still is not impressive, according to the player evaluation on DraftExpress.com. In it's latest mock draft, Draft Express lists Tucker falling into the second round.

Due to trades, several quality teams will be drafting near the top of the second round. This would seem to be an ideal situation for a mature player like Tucker, who might be able to find a niche contributing off the bench with his athleticism and hustle right away. The potential for more playing time would come with a lesser team, but often those type of teams are in such disarray that players get lost in a shuffle of mismanagement and a losing environment.

Conversely, Taylor is not on the NBA's draft radar, to the surprise of few. However, a very complimentary paragraph about Taylor appears on a different DraftExpress report. Taylor had been working out with a few Purdue and Ohio State players, including Greg Oden and Carl Landry, at the Champions Academy in Zionsville, Ind. Landry (who also shattered a backboard), termed the workout "a Big Ten reunion."

This is the first year in which draft hopefuls were not allowed to work out privately for NBA clubs prior to the Orlando Pre-Draft Camp. Starting June 5, players can begin those individual workouts for teams.

Stepping To The Next Level, Part I

Kam Taylor probably needed to make a strong impression at the Portsmouth Invitational to have a shot at a pro career. Even though this particular pre-draft tournament has lost its appeal to top prospects, it still attracts a number of players in Kam's position--seniors who need to secure their status as a draftable commodity or maybe even work their way into a European contract.

Matthew Maurer of The Draft Review had this to say on NBADraft.net regarding Kam's performance in Virginia:

"The Wisconsin Badger who had a solid NCAA tournament shot the ball extremely well off the dribble here and even showed impressive leaping ability on an alley oop dunk. Taylor failed to show that he can play the point guard position though."

Maurer is no household name, so take that info with a grain of salt. More than one source, however, listed Purdue's Carl Landry as impressing the scouts.

Alando Tucker was not present, so Badger fans will have to wait and see how much he can improve (solidify?) his current value in the minds of assorted NBA brass. On most sites, Tucker is being projected as a late first-round draft pick, though he is one of the top five prospects in this year's senior class. Darn those underclassmen declaring early--they are costing 'Do some dough!

For what it's worth, here are two Tucker draft profiles:
Draft Express | NBADraft.net

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Kevin Durant, on the other hand, is now officially signed, sealed and all-but delivered as one of the first two draft picks in June. Analysts are comparing the wiry Texas frosh to Tracy McGrady, Kevin Garnett, Shawn Marion and Carmelo Anthony.

Expect Durant to post rookie numbers more gaudy than those of McGrady or Garnett, but slightly less impressive than Anthony's. My thinking is that Durant, at 6'10 and 220 lbs., has a body most like Garnett, who entered the league an inch (or two) taller at the same weight. Both Garnett and McGrady (6'8"/210) were similar to Durant in that they were freaky athletic but rail thin. But like 'Melo, Durant also has one year in college under his belt, which neither McGrady or KG did.

Athleticism aside, Durant's game really is a combination of:
(1) Anthony's mid-range game and ability to take over a game,
(2) Marion's outside shooting and rebounding ability,
(3) McGrady's ball-handling and creativity, and ...
(4) a dash of Garnett's enthusiasm.

I even did some research, which I will post tomorrow. Bear with me.

Kammron the Coronary

Watching Kam Taylor struggle and consequently catch fire puts me into cardiac arrest. So I guess it's a good thing that I had to follow UW's first-round game via the Yahoo scoreboard. Only now, 24 hours later, have I finally exhaled from that near disaster.

Who could have predicted the Badgers' free-throw shooting would save them?! Led by Alando Tucker's 9-of-10 shooting, Wisconsin shot a robust 83% from the charity stripe in the amazing comeback. Meanwhile, neither Flowers nor Landry stepped up, resulting in an ugly first half. I cannot say enough about Taylor's second half in which he scored all of his game-high 24 points and willed the team to victory. My sheer relief precludes me from writing any more on this topic.

On to today's games ...

I'm giddily (I think that's a word) watching my most anticipated match-up of the tournament: Texas A&M versus Louisville. Both these teams are proving to have the talent and fortitude to make a Final Four run. The winner of this game will likely knock off Memphis and can easily topple Ohio State.

I haven't seen any terrible calls in this game, but both the Aggies and the Cards are so aggressive that each team has multiple prime-time performers saddled with four fouls at the 15-minute mark in the second half. I'm legitimately worried that one of these teams will run out of players over 6'5" by the end of the game. Whichever squad has the pleasure of facing the Buckeyes can easily foul Greg Oden out if he's not given the NBA treatment by the refs. Heck, Oden already fouled out against Xavier this morning.