Coach Steve Alford says NBA scouts have attended 88 of 100 UCLA practices this year, per Myron Medcalf of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv tweets that the scouts would presumably be interested in projected first-round picks Kyle Anderson and Zach LaVine, along with Jordan Adams, who is projected as a second round selection. Here’s a roundup of draft rumors:
- An NBA scout tells Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports that Michigan’s Glenn Robinson III is a solid late first round pick (Twitter link).
- Few front office executives expect Ohio State’s Aaron Craft to be drafted, according to Bob Finnan of The Morning Journal.
- Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim tells Zagoria that college players base their decision to enter the draft solely on their expected draft position, not how they performed in the NCAA tournament. “I’m not going to be specific about anybody but my experience is guys look and if they see they fall where they’re favorable [they leave]…If you go 15th in the draft, you’re nothing. You might be out of the league in two years,” said Boeheim. “It used to be a first-round draft pick you had a chance. That’s nothing. Those guys are out of the league. Half the guys taken in the first round the last three years are not even in the league. You gotta be in the top seven, eight, 10 picks to make sure you’re going to be playing in the NBA.”
- Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress points out that Boeheim’s estimates are pretty far off (Twitter links). Only 7% of first round picks from the last three years are out of the league today, and the No. 15 pick specifically has produced a good number of high-impact players in recent years.