More draft stuff from Insider

["Berry, Mark S" <berrym@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Here's some more interesting stuff from Insider:


Tale of the tape is revealing
By Chad Ford
NBA Insider
Send an Email to Chad Ford
<http://insider.espn.go.com/insider/writeback?name=Chad+Ford>  	Monday, June
9
Updated: June 9
12:34 PM ET 	
The climax of the Chicago pre-draft camp doesn't take place on the court.
Rather, one of the last and most intriguing sessions takes place in a small
back room of the Moody Bible College. 
There, top prospects are measured, weighed and put through a series of
strength and agility tests on Friday and Saturday. While some GMs scoff at
the tests, others think they play a key part in getting a player drafted.
The biggest thing scouts are looking at is wingspan. If a player has a long
wingspan, it allows him to play bigger than he really is. 
The official combine results are not released by the NBA. However, sources
inside the workouts told Insider on Saturday about several big surprises. 
On the measurement front 
The biggest surprise was that T. J. Ford measured 6-foot-= with shoes on.
That's considerably taller than the 5-foot-9 at which many had him pegged. 
Carmelo Anthony
<http://sports.espn.go.com/nbadraft/d03/tracker/player?playerId=18433>
measured just 6-7= with shoes. He was 6-6< without them. He does have a
nice, 7-foot wingspan. Also a few teams questioned his weight. He weighed
234 in Chicago, about 14 pounds above his listed playing weight of 220 at
Syracuse. 
Chris Bosh
<http://sports.espn.go.com/nbadraft/d03/tracker/player?playerId=18511>  also
measured on the tall side at 6-foot-11= with shoes. He weighed in at 225,
about 15 pounds heavier than his playing weight. Bosh's 7-3= wingspan also
helped him. 
David West
<http://sports.espn.go.com/nbadraft/d03/tracker/player?playerId=18446>  got
a big bump in his stock when he measured 6-8< without shoes and 6-9= with.
Combine that with a 7-4= wingspan, and West's stock could really move up the
charts. 
Josh Howard
<http://sports.espn.go.com/nbadraft/d03/tracker/player?playerId=18449>  and
Dwyane Wade
<http://sports.espn.go.com/nbadraft/d03/tracker/player?playerId=18440>
impressed everyone with great wingspan measurement. Howard measured
6-foot-6= with shoes but recorded an amazing 7-foot-2 wingspan. Wade
measured 6-foot-4> with shoes and had a 6-foot-10> wingspan. 
Mike Sweetney also helped himself. For big men, teams look at standing
reach. Despite measuring just 6-foot-8 with shoes, Sweetney's standing reach
was just a hair under nine feet. That puts him in the same category with
Bosh. In other words, like Elton Brand
<http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3324> , Sweetney will
be able to play "taller" than he actually is. 
Chris Kaman
<http://sports.espn.go.com/nbadraft/d03/tracker/player?playerId=18447>
measured 7-= with shoes, but his smallish wingspan 6-11> may hurt him a bit.

Pavel Podkozline's official measurements were 7-foot-5, 303 pounds with
shoes. His standing reach was 9-8. 
Darko Milicic
<http://sports.espn.go.com/nbadraft/d03/tracker/player?playerId=18423> 's
7-foot-5 wing span (he measured 7-> with shoes) was second only to Chris
Marcus
<http://sports.espn.go.com/nbadraft/d03/tracker/player?playerId=18556> , who
had a shocking 7-foot-8 span. 
Strength matters 
Each player is tested to see how many time he can bench press 185 pounds.
San Diego's Jason Keep
<http://sports.espn.go.com/nbadraft/d03/tracker/player?playerId=18519>
shattered the record this year, lifting the bar 27 times. 
BYU's Travis Hansen
<http://sports.espn.go.com/nbadraft/d03/tracker/player?playerId=18517>  also
shocked many observers when he benched the bar 17 times. Hansen was the real
star of the combine. He also recorded a 38-inch vertical jump and set a
Chicago record in a cone drill that gauges lateral quickness. 
Milicic got the bar up 14 times, a very impressive number for a big man. The
longer your arms, the longer distance you have to lift the bar. 
Anthony did eight reps. But the big surprise was Nick Collison
<http://sports.espn.go.com/nbadraft/d03/tracker/player?playerId=18443> , who
managed to lift the bar only four times, according to sources. That will
hurt his stock come draft day. Many teams have him pegged as a tough low
post guy. The lack of strength will hurt him at the next level. 
Ford was, according to sources the only player unable to bench press 185
even one time. Teams knew he wasn't very strong, but only a handful of
players in the last decade have been unable to lift the bar once. 
More secret workouts 
With all the stuff going on in Chicago, it's amazing teams had time to scout
even more private workouts last week, but they did. 
T. J. Ford held a private workout with the Raptors on Thursday afternoon.
According to league sources, Ford blew them away with his improved shooting.

"He's really been working on it," one league source told Insider. "It made
them much more comfortable with the idea of selecting him with the fourth
pick." 
The Raptors worked out Chris Kaman earlier in the week, and that one also
impressed them. "I'm not sure where the stuff is coming from that he's not a
good athlete," the same source told Insider. "He was very impressive. He
shot the ball well, and his footwork looked great on the post." 
To top things off, 7-0 Polish big man Maciej Lampe
<http://sports.espn.go.com/nbadraft/d03/tracker/player?playerId=18461>  held
a private audition for the Raptors and Heat at Hoops Gym on Saturday
morning. Insider got exclusive access to watch the workout. Trainer Tim
Grover ran the workout, with Heat coach Pat Riley, GM Randy Pfund and
Raptors GM Glen Grunwald in attendance. 
Lampe shot the ball well, showed his impressive ball-handling skills and ran
the floor pretty well. Lampe lacks the explosive jumping ability of some of
the other top prospects, but a report that he couldn't dunk the ball off one
foot is ridiculous. 
He went through a drill where he had to run to the free throw line, pick up
the ball and dunk it 10 times. He didn't have a problem. Toward the end of
the workout, Lampe did get winded, and he struggled to hit his NBA
3-pointers. 
Lampe measured 7-feet with shoes and had a 7-foot wingspan. 
After the workout, the feedback was very positive. Both teams liked his
sweet shooting stroke, ball handling skills and general feel for the game.
While neither team is expected to draft Lampe that high, source on both
teams confirmed later they believe he's a lock for the mid to late lottery. 
Draft rumors 
*  Among the teams looking to move up? The Blazers, Grizzlies, Jazz and Suns
have been the most active according to sources. The Nuggets, Suns and Mavs
have been trying to acquire another pick, as well. Who's listening? The
Raptors, Heat, Bucks, Knicks and Wizards all would move down, if they could
get a solid veteran to help them win right away. 
*  The word at the camp was that Brazilian big man Anderson Varejao
<http://sports.espn.go.com/nbadraft/d03/tracker/player?playerId=18462>  will
withdraw his name from the draft. Varejao's stock took a dive after limited
playing time at the Euroleague final four. Playoff commitments to F.C.
Barcelona kept Varejao from coming to the U.S. to work out. 
*  Rumors that Pavel Podkolzine's workout on Friday was well choreographed
to hide the player's lack of speed couldn't be further from the truth.
Someone is talking the player down in hopes he slips in the draft. Pavel got
off the plane from Italy on Thursday afternoon and arrived at Gold Coast
Multiplex around 5 p.m. He met coach Billy Bayno for the first time there.
Bayno ran him through drills, once, for about an hour, just to get a feel
for what he could do. The workout on Friday was only the second time the two
had ever met. Pavel ran the floor very well both days. How do I know? I was
at both workouts and spent much of the evening with Pavel on Thursday. Teams
that I talked to after the workout where shocked at how athletic he looked. 
*  There's a rumor floating around that Zarko Cabarkapa
<http://sports.espn.go.com/nbadraft/d03/tracker/player?playerId=18463>  got
a promise from the Suns he'd be the No. 17 pick in the draft. This one is
probably bogus. It started when Cabarkapa suddenly left the U.S., after only
two workouts, to go home to Yugoslavia. Some teams assumed he quit working
out because he cut a deal. Not true, according to Zarko's representatives
and the Suns. Zarko's mother had a medical emergency, and he quickly flew
back during the dead week of the Chicago camp to be with his mother. He'll
be back in the U.S. early next week and begin working out again. 
*  A similar rumor is floating around about Brazil's Leandrinho Barbosa
<http://sports.espn.go.com/nbadraft/d03/tracker/player?playerId=18545> , who
canceled a workout claiming he had a pulled hip flexor. Several teams
immediately assumed a team had locked him up. Again, untrue. Barbosa's
agent, Michael Coyne told Insider the injury was real, and it is pretty much
healed. He'll be back on the workout circuit again by midweek.