Hoops Rumors extends its condolences to those close to European standout Rasmus Larsen, who was found dead at his home, as Emiliano Carchia of Sportando tweets. The 20-year-old from Denmark was an early entrant for the 2014 NBA draft before withdrawing, though he didn’t apply for this year’s draft as he’d struggled with injury. The cause of the death has yet to be identified, agent Doug Neustadt told Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). He was a mobile big man and versatile scorer reminiscent of Cody Zeller, according to Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress (Twitter link). Here’s more draft-related news:
- Myles Turner‘s unusual running style has been cause for concern, but tests through the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York showed his gait is correctable with a series of daily exercises, as Matt Kamalsky of DraftExpress examines. The results of the tests, arranged by agent Andy Miller in concert with Turner’s father and trainer Ken Roberson, have been sent to NBA teams, Kamalsky notes. Turner is the 11th-ranked prospect on DraftExpress, and Eddie Scarito of Hoops Rumors wrote about the way the center from Texas runs in his prospect profile of the draft hopeful whom Eddie lists 10th in the Hoops Rumors Draft Prospect Power Rankings.
- The Timberwolves will interview D’Angelo Russell at the Chicago predraft combine this week, reports Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities (Twitter link). Russell is a candidate for Minnesota’s lottery selection, which will fall between No. 1 and No. 4, as the lottery odds show. Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress and Chad Ford of ESPN.com both rank him as the fourth-best prospect.
- Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel delivers his mock draft, which has the Heat taking Kelly Oubre at No. 10, given team president Pat Riley‘s affection for players with upside. Miami would lose its pick if it falls out of the top 10 in the lottery, though there’s only about a 9% chance of that happening.