NBA Nba Prospects

During the NBA Draft last week, Jay Bilas took pains to avoid using his favorite words when talking about the draftees: "long" and "upside." It wasn't because the folks at ESPN told him that his overuse of the words had become annoying and tiresome. No. He just wanted to keep people from getting too tanked that night ($).

I am aware of the drinking games that are based upon the use of such terms, and I did my level best to reduce binge drinking across the country. We all have to do what we can. Instead of "long," I used the terms "length," "stretch," "elongated," "extend" and the ever-popular "considerable linear extent in space." With one player, I stated that his arms "extend beyond normal or moderate limits."

The draft day drinking games featuring Bilas have been around for a few years. I doubt his direct avoidance of those words did much to slow it down. Especially with the other talking heads around him happily picking up the slack.

Still, that Bilas acknowledges the games are played, and actually has something approaching a sense of humor about it is a welcome thing. Most wouldn't admit to it, or at best might mention it in passing if pushed on a radio show. Instead Bilas came out with it on his own.

With the NBA Draft come and gone, it is interesting to look back at those guys who were "testing the waters" and decided to leap in. Some came out looking pretty smart; others didn't.

Smart Move: Luc Richard Mbah a Moute (UCLA): Sure, he went at #37 and guarantees him nothing, but I honestly thought that this cat would go undrafted and ... since he signed with an agent ... was making a huge mistake. Going to a team like Milwaukee and Scott Skiles who will love his defensive intensity, he should find a home. It wasn't the most intelligent move, but he outfoxed most of us.

Dumb Move: Bill Walker (Kansas State): Despite a knee injury right at the 'test' deadline, he felt he had a good shot at a first round pick. Instead, he drops all the way down to #47 and ends up with the Celtics. Many felt Walker would be best suited to go back to K-State and have that team to himself and vault his draft value. Instead, he will find a tough time making a championship team.

We Shall See: Mario Chalmers (Kansas): Chalmers was supposed to go higher than #34, but he may have ended up in a cherry situation. Miami drafted him and really could use a good decision making, defensive minded point guard. He, along with Derrick Rose and Russell Westbrook, could be starting point guards in the fall.

If you looked at the official release of who was in and out for the NBA Draft, you might have noticed a freshman named JaJuan Robinson from Lincoln (PA) University. Why would a freshman from a D-III program, that nobody knows anything about be in the NBA Draft? Is this another smart-assed kid just trying to have fun with the system?

Sadly, it is not. JaJuan Robinson is a 24-year old, 5-11 "freshman," who has taken a long time to get to this point. At one time he was a decent enough high school prospect. A 2-star recruit from Baltimore. A scrappy point guard who was known for hard play on both ends.

He was actually part of Big East school, Providence's 2004 recruiting class (after taking a 5th year of high school at prep school in South Carolina). Apparently he suffered a minor knee injury in an offseason practice and then left the school a month into the season for the always nebulous "personal reasons."

That's where he disappeared (or at least dropped off of any search engine).

Despite suffering a tough knee injury yesterday that may have pushed him out of the first round of the NBA Draft, Kansas State's Bill Walker is deciding to stay in the draft.

Kansas State Wildcats redshirt freshman Bill Walker will remain in the NBA draft despite injuring his right knee at a workout over the weekend, his advisor, Chris Rivers said Monday afternoon.

Rivers, the director of basketball at Reebok, said that an MRI taken Monday didn't reveal a tear of the MCL or the ACL, which was feared when Walker heard a pop prior to working out for 21 teams at the Golden State Warriors' practice facility in Oakland.

This is huge news for Kansas State, which will lose both Walker and Michael Beasley to the NBA and most likely end the latest Golden Era in Manhattan.

With this news, it shows that Walker not only believes that he is a first round pick, but that his knee is also healthy. Many feel that the Detroit Pistons (who pick 29th) may have guaranteed Walker they'd take him there (it is a need they have) and may have pushed Walker's decision to stay.

Trying to figure out what a 20, 21 year old is going to do with his life is tough. Especially when these guys are agentless and are told different things by different people with different interests.

Still, with the 5 p.m. ET deadline for NBA Draft prospects who still have college eligibility and not signed with an agent looming, let's take a look at who has to make the big decisions today.

Chase Budinger (Arizona): He says he could come back to school, but even his coach says he'd be nuts to. He'll be a midround pick and the kind of guy who a team late in the first round won't be able to pass up.

Ty Lawson (North Carolina): I think Lawson is in. He seemed as if he was trying to find a reason to leave Carolina and he seems to have a lock on getting picked in the first round (Nuggets, Spurs). This isn't an elite point guard draft and Lawson would fit certain teams.

Bill Walker (Kansas State): This is a tough one. Even before his injury, no one really knew where Walker's value was. He was the perfect example of a guy who someone could take a chance in the 20s ... or he could fall out of the first round altogether. Initial reports say he tore his meniscus which means his pre-draft workouts are over. I think Walker comes back to school if he doesn't get any better news on his knee.

Let me tell ya: this whole Ty Lawson saga just keeps getting weirder. After announcing he will enter the NBA Draft, he's had nothing but drama.

• He bitched about people saying he's testing the waters.
• He didn't like Tar Heels fans slamming him.
• He announced he'd come back to school if he wasn't guaranteed to go in the top twenty picks.
• After playing one game in the NBA's Pre-Draft camp, he sat the rest of the time with a hip pointer.
• He doesn't show up to a workout with the Nuggets, who hold the #20 pick.
• He gets arrested for drinking, playing loud music and other stuff.

Mind you, he still has a week to make a decision on whether or not to come back to North Carolina (he hasn't signed with an agent, keeping his eligibility), so lord knows what else could go wrong.

Well, add this to the list: Lawson rolled his ankle while working out for the Washington Wizards. The Wiz hold the #18 pick and ... let's just say ... they have a thing for UNC players (Antawn Jamison, Brendan Haywood, assistant coach Mike O'Koren).

Remember that Lawson has hurt his ankle during the past season at UNC.

The NBA Draft has taken another "one-and-done" player: NC State forward J.J. Hickson. Hickson, who had been testing the draft waters, announced that he's going to dive on in:

"I would say that I'm definitely in the draft. I came out just testing the waters but since I'm hearing a lot of good things about my game I'm not going to pull my name out."

"I'm not really hearing anything, but I think I've given a bunch of good showings. I'm coming in here and I'm trying to impress the scouts and that's why I think I'm going to keep my name in. I think I'm having good showings."

Now this announcement came courtesy of the Phoenix Suns official web site after Hickson worked out for the team. Phoenix has the #15 pick in the draft and it's curious that he'd choose to make this announcement now. After all, it really wasn't any shock that he'd keep his name in the draft ... just that he chose now to make it official.

He has worked out for Sacramento (#12, #42, #43), Seattle (#4, #24, #32) and Cleveland (#19) with trips to Denver (#20) and Philadelphia (#16) coming up. NBADraft.net has him selected with the final pick in the first round (Boston) while DraftExpress has him as the first pick of the second round (Minnesota).

It's a shame false rumors about a deal to increase the NBA's minimum age requirement for entry to the draft gained more attention last week than the real reason for college-pro collaboration: the formation of a plan to "rescue" American youth basketball. Reps from the NBA, NCAA, AAU, USA Basketball, and the shoe companies got together to say "we need to do something," which as Baltimore Sun columnist David Steele notes is a good first step. But it's really not clear where this is going, as Steele writes.

Too bad no one on that stage suggested blowing up the entire system and starting over from scratch. Practically speaking, that's impossible, and it actually wouldn't be fair to those entities within the system who try to do the right thing from within. ... No segment is wholly good or wholly bad, nor is any idea or any concept. That goes for the NCAA and its one-sided system, the shoe companies and their virtual bankrolling of kids as early as middle school, and the NBA and its ever-changing attempts to gauge public approval.

It's all an unwieldy mess, and something had to be done to bring some structure to it all.

Short of blowing it all up, someone's got to take the conch and be the leader on this. David Stern's NBA is a good candidate, though Stern has always seemed wary of tussling with shoe companies (he'd rather fight with his players and the media). The NCAA has limited practical opportunity to expand its power here -- their regulations already levy hefty punishments on players and programs who don't play by the strict rules. (Lest we forget the debate over LeBron James's moot NCAA eligibility.) AAU is too huge and dispersed to prevent the occasional (or "frequent," unfortunately) abuse, and USA Basketball can't conceivably get too mucked up in sub-star ranks of teen hoops.

The best solution might be this whole raising-the-age-limit thing, as distasteful and backwards as it seems. The NCAA, again, is strict. Forcing kids into two years of college theoretically forces the players to abide by those strict compensation/gift rules longer, and raises the penalty for players who run afoul (or are lead afoul). The NCAA also needs to crack down on glorified street agents who lead star high schoolers to certain programs. Worldwide Wes is one thing. Other pipelines aren't so clean.

There has been some discussion as to what it would mean about the rumored increase in the minimum age for the NBA Draft to age 20. As suspected by some, it does turn out, that the rumor is untrue.

Overheated press reports before today's joint NBA-NCAA news conference in San Antonio had NBA Commissioner David Stern and NCAA President Myles Brand about to announce a deal requiring college players to stay for two seasons instead of one.

This was not only in error -- there's no deal, nor was one discussed -- but missed a fundamental point:

This isn't between the NBA and the NCAA. It's between the NBA and the National Basketball Players Assn.

The NCAA may give its tacit or even explicit approval to an age requirement for the NBA Draft, but it has no legal or practical say in things.

No, the press conference for today concerns the joint venture to change the way youth basketball is structured, run and organized. The NCAA and NBA plan to contribute up to $15 million dollars each for a new program. One that will involve certifying and training both officials and coaches at the lower levels.

The details are sketchy to say the least. By accounts, it appears they are still formulating just what will happen, but they wanted to let everyone know something will be happening.

Earlier, the Charlotte News-Observer reported the NBA and NCAA will have a joint press conference Monday to announce a bump in the NBA's age-limit from 19 to 20 years old, and FanHouse's Sportz Assassin explained why he is in favor of the move here. However, don't expect this announcement to actually happen tomorrow. A few reasons:

1. The NCAA has nothing to do with the age limit. Myles Brand can wish wish wish to his heart's content, but he has no role in "negotiating" a bump in the age limit with the NBA. The rule is for the NBA and its player association to decide, just as it was in 2006. Which brings us to the real reason this isn't happening...
2. The NBA's collective bargaining agreement isn't up for negotiation until 2010-11. The bump in the limit will happen, I'd bet -- but not until 2011. It's an important issue to David Stern, but not one he'd be willing to trot out (as a controversial topic) on the eve of possibly the greatest postseason in modern NBA history. He could presumably have negotiated this into the CBA, but then the player's union would be a party to the press conference, not the NCAA.

My intuition tells me the announcement will instead be about a plan to retake youth basketball from the sneaker companies, which was reported by the Indianapolis Business Journal to be in negotiations in March. Announcing the formation of either a national youth organization run by the NBA and NCAA (or USA Basketball) or a major basketball academy for teenaged stars-in-waiting would provide a ton of great press on the morning of the National Championship game.