Cedi Osman Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Draft Notes: Combine, Montero, Osman

May 9th, 2015 at 3:50pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Turkish swingman Cedi Osman indicated that he is most likely two years away from joining the NBA, and that he wishes to gain more experience by continuing to play overseas, Mertkan Üçüncüoğlu of TalkBasket.net relays. “I’m moving in line with my targets,” Osman said. “Hopefully I’ll be selected from a very good place. If I don’t get selected the first round this is not a problem for me. Because I’ll stay here for two more years. I want to go to the NBA in a ready way . That’s what matters. I’ve always dreamed of playing in the NBA.” The 20-year-old is ranked by Chad Ford of ESPN.com (Insider subscription required) as the No. 34 overall prospect and he occupies the No. 44 slot on Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress‘ top 100 players in the 2015 NBA draft.

Here’s more draft related items:

Bowling Green product Richaun Holmes will participate in the NBA Draft combine in Chicago, according to Hoops Rumors’ Zach Links (via Twitter). Zach spoke with Holmes late last month to kick off the Hoops Rumors Draft Prospect Q&A series.
Westchester Community College swingman Luis David Montero has qualified to enter the 2015 NBA draft, Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports tweets. The NBA league office relayed that Montero’s early entry letter was received prior to the declaration deadline, Spears notes. The 6’7″ Dominican isn’t currently projected to be selected come June.
With the NBA Draft combine set to begin next week, Yannis Koutroupis of Basketball Insiders runs down six potential sleeper picks who will be participating in Chicago. According to Koutroupis, these players are Larry Nance Jr. (Wyoming), Norman Powell (UCLA), Keifer Sykes (Wisconsin-Green Bay), Chris Walker (Florida), and Joseph Young (Oregon).
Utah point guard Delon Wright would be a solid draft selection this June for a contending team looking for a role-player who could contribute almost immediately, Ford, Kevin Pelton, and Fran Fraschilla of ESPN.com (Insider subscription required) write in their profile of the 23-year-old. Wright is the No. 26 ranked prospect according to both ESPN.com and DraftExpress.

Cedi Osman, Nikola Milutinov Entering Draft

April 16th, 2015 at 12:42pm CST by Chuck Myron

Small forward Cedi Osman and center Nikola Milutinov will enter this year’s draft, according to their agents, Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress reports (Twitter links). Both are overseas prospects with decent chances to become second-round picks in June. Small forward Rade Zagorac, another international hopeful, will also declare for the draft this year, agent Misko Raznatovic said, as Givony notes (Twitter link), though Zagorac isn’t as highly regarded. He’s not within the top 100 prospects for either Givony or Chad Ford of ESPN.com, and Givony ranks him 16th-best among overseas prospects born in 1995. Osman is No. 52 with both Ford and Givony, while Ford has Milutinov 59th and Givony ranks him 68th.

The 6’6″ Osman, another Raznatovic client, has averaged 7.6 points and 3.8 rebounds in 19.7 minutes per game this season for Turkish mainstay Anadolu Efes. He’s not a strong three-point shooter at this point, having averaged 32.4% from behind the arc this year and 32.9% last year. The now 20-year-old averaged 2.3 points in a little more than nine minutes per game during last year’s FIBA World Cup.

Milutinov, who’s also 20, has put up somewhat more impressive numbers for KK Partizan in his native Serbia, averaging 9.2 PPG and 7.4 RPG in 26.4 MPG this season. The 7-footer isn’t much of a shot-blocker, swatting just 0.8 shots per contest. He’s a client of agent Marko Jelic.

Zagorac, 19, is the only double-figure scorer among the trio in spite of his status as a lesser prospect, having put up 10.8 PPG in 28.9 MPG with 39.4% three-point shooting this year for Serbia’s KK Mega Vizura. All three can withdraw from the draft anytime between now and June 15th.