Draft Buzz 6/10/04By: Aran_Smith

Predraft Camp Day 2

Players who have stood out on day two:

Hoops the Gym Workout

Little mighty might Nate Robinson had an impressive day Wednesday. He led the one point victors with 22 points on 9-14 shooting with 4 rebounds and 4 assists. He showed his phenomenal athleticism and scoring ability, but also some of the little things that are making teams believe he has a chance to play in the league. His desire and hustle is evident, and he’s showing a better ability to protect the ball and find teammates. He can hang his hat on the success of small point guard Earl Boykins, however his game is more flashy and less point guard oriented.

Slovenian PG Beno Udrih has done well so far. He’s a prospect that got lost in the shuffle playing in the far reaches of Avtodor Saratov Russia, but has long been a top guard prospect with combo skills. He has the added advantage of staying in Europe and joining a team a few years down the road which teams find appealing.

Damien Wilkins had 17 on 5-12 from the field. He showed good aggressiveness getting to the line 13 times making 7.

Jaime Lloreda has been impressive with rebounding and toughness. The language barrier is still an issue, but it’s not going to keep him from being drafted.

Brazilian PG
Marcelo Huertas had a workout yesterday at Hoops the gym and unfortunately nerves got the best of him as 15 minutes into the workout he had to stop for a while as he began to hyperventilate.

Camp Casualties:

Sergey Lischouk and Herve Lamizana have both gone down with ankle injuries and it’s uncertain if either will return. Lamizana suffered his just minutes into the first workout of the camp.

Blake Stepp has an ankle injury that will keep him out of the entire camp.

Kevin Martin Workout

Kevin Martin had a workout in the early afternoon at the Gold Coast Multiplex. Roughly 8-10 teams (including Sonics, Spurs, Lakers, Heat, Nuggets and Mavericks) mostly in the mid-late first round showed up. Martin has filled out some since the season, and looked very explosive. He is a natural scorer with a nice in between game. He uses a lot of ball fakes and is good at creating shots for himself with the dribble or coming off screens. As a freshman he was basically a spot up shooter but in the past two seasons his ball handling and creativity off the dribble have grown.

Wearing a jersey with "K-Mart" on the back made several scouts wonder aloud, "Doesn’t he know that nickname is already taken?"

Martin shot the ball alright, but most impressive was his athleticism. He gets off the floor with little effort. He showed great elevation gliding in for dunks in drills.

His jumpshot is not picture perfect as he sometimes swipes the ball across his body during his shooting stroke. A little tinkering to his form could be beneficial. Although, Reggie Miller’s shot is ugly, you can’t knock the results.

A player that Martin is getting comparisons to lately, partly due to being fresh in everyone’s mind, is Rip Hamilton. Martin has the same strong mid range game, and his best attribute is scoring.

Martin is in the same boat with a number of the early entry guys. He’s got another year of eligibility, and could go back to Western Carolina for his senior season or turn pro with or without a promise in the first round. Either way it’s a risk, and it will come down to deciding just how interested teams rally are in the second round.

His biggest drawback is his lack of strength. He has obviously gotten stronger, but he has a similar build to Rip Hamilton and Reggie Miller, which for those players hasn’t stopped them from

The three teams that appear to have the most interest right now are Miami and Boston and the Lakers.

SFX Workoutv

Hoops the gym was packed to the gills with close to 200 of the leagues GM’s and scouts, Chris Mullin at half court, Dominique on one end of the court, Larry Bird on another. It was a pressure cooker situation that had swallowed Brazilian PG Marcelo Huertas the day before.

The International quartet included Korean giant Ha Seung-jin, Slovenian PF Erazem Lorbek, and SG Sasha Vujacic, and Croatian PG Roko Leni Ukic.

The workout proved that the only sure fire first rounder in the bunch is
Vujacic, who many feel has passed up Sebastian Telfair on team’s lists. He has a nice package of skills, with quick feet, a solid body, nice handle, passing ability, good shooting and a great head on his shoulders. He’s further along developmentally in both his game and body than Ukic. And most feel he has a stronger level of motivation. He is the safer pick of the two. However, because of his athletic ability and point guard skills, Ukic has even more upside.

Ukic didn’t receive an invite to the camp which made no difference as he’s essentially like the American high school players vying for a first round slot and would likely have opted for personal workouts instead of potentially killing his draft stock with a poor showing in predraft games. Fellow Croatian early entry but inferior prospect, Marko Tomas got an invite, and has not performed well.

Ukic has been a PG that our European contacts are very high on. He looked very solid in the Hoops Summit game, both with his defense on Telfair, and his quickness and decision making running the show offensively. He was one of the real standouts last week at the Treviso Camp. After Livingston, Harris, and Gordon, Ukic might have more upside than any PG in this draft. However teams don’t appear to be quite so high on him yet. His body is still severely underdeveloped.

One knock from our European contacts is whether he’s a smart enough floor general. He obviously has the quickness, athleticism and ball handling ability.

Ukic has long been one of the top guard prospects in Europe. He has a flair to his game lacking in most European players. As NBADraft.net scout Cristian Biagini put it, "He’s one I’d pay to watch."

Ha Seung-jin is a mammoth at 7-4 and gets up and down the court well for his size. He shoots the ball pretty well, however he lacks the understanding of how to set up his shots as witnessed by Erazem Lorbek blocking his shots on a number of occasions. His offense is still very limited.

Seung-jin impressed some with his size and mobility, and some feel that just based on his size he’s worth a late first rounder. However it seems more likely that he will fall into the second round somewhere.

Erazem Lorbek moved around pretty well, but is very slow by NBA standards and probably will go undrafted, although he is helped by the "stash and wait" philosophy with teams drafting Europeans and keeping them in Europe to see if they develop over time.

With contrasting styles and body types it wa great to see both players square off in a highly competitive game of one on one. Ukic showed a solid fadeaway and great quickness. Vujacic is more the structured and methodical athlete while Ukic is more the free flowing improvisational kind of game.