NBA Draft Machine 2000

[kevin <kevin.lok@lycosmail.com>]

Hi everybody,

found this site to be very informative on 2000 draft prospects, try it:
http://www.totalaction.com/draftmachine/nba2000/top_seniors.htm

cheers
kevin/singapore

MATEEN CLEAVES
Michigan State - Point Guard
6'2", 195
Cleaves comes into his senior season with a golden opportunity to
establish himself as a high lottery pick................Cleaves led
Michigan State into the Final Four with his solid brand of point guard
play.................And Cleaves is more of a traditional point guard,
choosing to set up teammates rather than concentrate on scoring, and
playing solid defense on the other team's backcourt
threat..................Cleaves is a great distributor of the ball, who
may be the best pure penetrator among all the eligible
guards.................He's not shy about putting himself into traffic
near the basket if it means he can create a scoring
opportunity.....................Although Charlie Bell, his backcourt
mate, might be a slightly better defender, there is no doubt that
Cleaves is very, very solid on the defensive
end.......................Sure-handed playmaker whose assist-to-turnover
ratio was nearly 2-1 as a junior..............His leadership inspires
confidence among his teammates..................However, the package is
not 100% complete. Cleaves still lacks an NBA-quality jump shot from the
perimeter and will have his defender playing off of him at the next
level unless he does something to develop it
quickly...................But he was a very solid free throw shooter
(80.2%).............For the 1998-99 season, averaged 11.7 points, 1.6
rebounds, and 7.1 assists, shooting just 41% from the field and 29.6%
from beyond the arc.........................Was one of the top assist
men in the country...............Possesses nice intangibles on the
floor, but intangibles which are not so nice are the minor legal scrapes
he got into in the off-season...................Still, everyone in
Lansing was very relieved that he chose to stay in school for another
year rather than make himself available for the NBA Draft, where he
would have added to the deep crop of high-quality point
guards.............Made just about everybody's All-American team,
including that of Total Action....... ................Was an
All-American as a sophomore as well, and went into the 98-99 season as
one fo the favorites to win the player of the year award.............But
he went through a lull in December where he put together a series of
lackluster performances, and took himself pretty much out of
contention............Came on toward the end of the year, when it really
counted..........A native of Flint, Michigan, where he played for Flint
Northern High School and was a teammate of fellow Spartan Antonio Smith