Orlando went well enough for Aaron Gray that he likely will be drafted before the end of the 1st round. What will likely help Gray to be considered the 3d best college Center prospect is the withdrawal of Hibbert and two other Center prospects who bailed on Orlando (ESPN Insider subs.).
Reasons weren’t given but the feeling among teams is that all of the players were advised not to play for fear that it would unnecessarily hurt their status. BC’s Jared Dudley was surprised that Williams wasn’t here Tuesday after he said [Sean] Williams had texted him to say he was coming. So Dudley said he figured that Williams was told not to come by his representation. Hardin is the only player on this list that hasn’t signed with an agent. Cal’s staff claims that [DeVon] Hardin will return to the Bears unless he were assured that he is in the top 20. Currently, he is not projected to go that high. Hardin has been nursing multiple injuries the past two seasons.
Sean Williams was kicked off of the BC basketball team after numerous suspensions and second chances for various infractions. The final was testing positive (again) for marijuana. So Sean Williams representation thinks that not sending him to Orlando to compete after not playing for over half this past season and big red flags about character and work ethic. He’s got potential, but the risks make him a late-second or free agent signing. Oddly enough, the rumors are that the Knicks or the Nets might go with him in the first round and that’s why he didn’t show.
DeVon Hardin has been seriously injury prone at Cal, and now doesn’t show to even get a physical. Yeah, that’s a solid choice for a pick. Nothing to worry there. Maybe some rank them ahead of Gray, but Hardin is likely heading back to Cal unless some team makes him a guarantee in the first round.
Additionally, Ante Tomic out of Croatia is also out of the NBA Draft (Insider subs). That further reduces the big man pool.
Gray made a positive impression.
Thus far, he has shown scouts that he’s been working on his body by coming into the camp in good shape after losing weight and he’s done well in drills that focus on half-court offense (pick and rolls, etc.).
He’s now got to go through the individual workouts. No, he’s not going to be a star, but he will likely be a solid role-player/back-up for a team. He’s going to get drafted late in the first or early-second. When there are only 60 picks in a draft, that isn’t too bad. If he goes to a team that plays half-court and doesn’t try to run, he will be a valuable addition. And if he ever grasps the concept of footwork, he could become a draft steal.
The sad thing, is that some Pitt fans would be more pissed if he did improve and succeed in the NBA. If like so many big men, he still gets better after appearing to plateau at times. If his game continued to improve and he became a starter or god forbid, an all-star. They’d complain that he obviously didn’t work hard enough at Pitt, a choker. That he was a bust or that the coaches failed to get more out of him.
Yes, Gray is a 7-footer. He was closing in on that height coming out of high school. And who exactly did Pitt have to battle for his services? Not Temple (when they were still relevant), Villanova, UConn, Syracuse and other powers in the Philly/East Coast area. Pitt’s main competition to get Gray was Rutgers. His size didn’t matter when his game was completely lacking.
He was a complete project that in his 4 years at Pitt got to 2nd Team All-American in his final year, All-Big East for two straight years, Most Improved in the Big East in 2006, got to the Big East Championship in the past two years and the Sweet 16.
We all wanted more. Hell, many of us have been wanting more for years. In some ways, it’s getting a little more frustrating the last couple of years because things seem to be so much closer than ever. Yet, Pitt still hasn’t made it.
It seems that for some, if Pitt hasn’t made it yet, then the individual players shouldn’t be able to succeed.
