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Draft Updates: Porter, Southerland, Kazemi

May 11th, 2013 at 2:00pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Jazz brought in half a dozen players projected to go in the second round for workouts today, though many more intriguing prospects will attend next week's NBA pre-draft camp taking place in Chicago. There's more news on players auditioning for teams among today's draft-related items, as we share here:

Agent David Falk doesn't have quite the impressive list of clients that he did when he repped the likes of Michael Jordan and Patrick Ewing, but he could have a top-three pick from this year's draft. Otto Porter is going with Falk, tweets Liz Mullen of Sports Business Journal.
Second-round hopeful James Southerland has signed with Mark Bartelstein of Priority Sports & Entertainment, reports Mike Waters of The (Syracuse, N.Y.) Post-Standard.
Oregon tweener forward Arsalan Kazemi is ranked in the mid-80s by ESPN.com and DraftExpress, but the native of Iran took to Twitter to show off the wares from his workout with the Lakers this week (hat tip to Sportando).

Otto Porter To Enter Draft

April 15th, 2013 at 9:13am CST by Luke Adams

We heard last night that Georgetown's Otto Porter had scheduled a press conference for today to announce his decision on his future. Now, Jeff Goodman of CBSSports.com reports that Porter will announce his intent to declare for the draft, forgoing his final two NCAA seasons.

Although Porter's Hoyas were upset in the first round of the NCAA Tournament by No. 15 seed Florida Gulf Coast, it was a successful individual season for the sophomore forward, who was named the Big East Player of the Year. For the season, he averaged 16.2 PPG and 7.5 RPG, to go along with .480/.422/.777 shooting.

Porter projects as a certain lottery pick in June, ranking fourth on Chad Ford's big board at ESPN.com and eighth on Jonathan Givony's board at DraftExpress.com.

Draft Rumors: Noel, Zeller, McLemore, Porter

April 1st, 2013 at 3:59pm CST by Chuck Myron

A pair of underclassmen declared their intentions to enter the NBA draft today, with N.C. State's C.J. Leslie and Kentucky's Archie Goodwin entering the mix. Here's more of what we're hearing with the draft now less than three months away:

The tournament bracket makes it clear which NCAA teams are winners, but Ben Standig of CSNWashington sorts through the March Madness winners and losers as it pertains to the draft.
Standig cites Kentucky center Nerlens Noel as a winner, and Sean Deveney of The Sporting News agrees, even though Noel has been out since February with a torn ACL (Twitter link). Other contenders to be the No. 1 overall pick, like Cody Zeller, Ben McLemore, Otto Porter and Marcus Smart all faltered, Deveney observes.
Joe Kotoch of SheridanHoops.com unveils the initial version of his mock draft, and has Noel going first overall, followed by Smart and McLemore.
A Western Conference GM tells Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv that six or seven members of the 2014 draft class would be in the mix for the No. 1 pick if they were eligible this year (Twitter link).
A GM who spoke to Dave Telep of ESPN.com echoed that sentiment, citing five potential All-Stars who could be in next year's draft: Andrew Wiggins, Jabari Parker, Aaron Gordon, Julius Randle and Andrew Harrison (Twitter link).

Draft Notes: Muhammad, Porter, Maui Invitational

November 20th, 2012 at 7:18pm CST by Sean Highkin

College basketball season is officially underway, which means that teams and fans are now starting to look ahead to the 2013 NBA Draft. Here are a few links rounding up the early action:

Yahoo! Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski writes after UCLA's Shabazz Muhammad made his debut that it's too early to declare him the frontrunner to be the top pick.
Wojnarowski also notes that teams aren't enamored with this year's crop of talent, and quotes one Western Conference executive as saying the team that receives the first pick could trade down.
Jeremy Bauman of SheridanHoops.com was impressed with Georgetown freshman Otto Porter, saying he may be rising up draft boards after a breakout performance against UCLA.
ESPN.com's Chad Ford has a roundup of the Maui Invitational, and writes that the talent in the draft is leaving general managers wanting more.