The Pistons have released 15 names of prospects who have participated in pre-draft workouts with the team. The names have been reported by all the newspapers, but I’m crediting the Detroit News for doing the legwork by providing height and college info:
Mohammed Abukar, 6-10, 229 pounds, power forward, San Diego State
Morris Almond, 6-6, 215, shooting guard, Rice
Stanko Barac, 7-1, 240, center, Bosnia
Marco Belinelli, 6-5, 192, shooting guard, Italy
Bobby Brown, 6-1, 170, point guard, Cal State Fullerton
Derrick Byars, 6-7, 220, forward, Vanderbilt
Javaris Crittenton, 6-5, 198, point guard, Georgia Tech
Zabian Dowdell, 6-3, 200, point guard, Virginia Tech
Brandon Heath, 6-4, 198, guard, San Diego State
Quinton Hosley, 6-6, 210, forward, Fresno State
Trey Johnson, 6-5, 218, shooting guard, Jackson State
Jared Jordan, 6-2, 187, point guard, Marist:
Sammy Mejia, 6-6, 195, shooting guard, DePaul
Gabe Pruitt, 6-4, 170, guard, Southern Cal
Ramon Sessions, 6-3, 190, point guard, Nevada
Rodney Stuckey, 6-5, 205, guard, Eastern Washington
Ali Traore, 6-9, 240, forward, Ivory Coast (France)
Darryl Watkins, 6-11, 258, center, Syracuse
Marcus Williams, 6-7, 205, forward, Arizona
Dashawn Wood, 5-11, 180, guard, Detroit and Wright State
Nick Young, 6-6, 200, swing player, Southern Cal
Thaddeus Young, 6-8, 220, forward, Georgia Tech
Artem Zabelin, 7-0, 215, center, Russia
What, no Acie Law? Apparently, it seems the Clippers have their eyes on him if he’s there at No. 14 — Chad Ford goes so far as to suggest (Insider link, sorry) the Clippers have promised Law as much.
Update: I’m also intrigued by Jared Jordan, and not just because of this Sports Illustrated article. The kid led the NCAA in assists the last two years — that’s damn impressive, even if he did play for Marist. But hey, do you really think Joe Dumars (McNeese State) holds it against someone for going to a small school? Many mock drafts don’t include him, but if he’s still there when the Pistons draft in the second round (57th overall), I wouldn’t mind giving him a shot.
You update the site but dont even put up that you’re pistons.com ?
Heh, thanks for noticing. That was going to go in my next post …
no problem. It was a good article too. And your update just said what I was thinking. I saw Jordan on their and I was interested. Looked on draftexpress and nbadraft.net yet couldn’t find him. That wouldn’t be a bad pick with our 2nd round choice
oh and Jordan was born october 14th. Got to get him now since thats my birthday lol. And here’s a link to a hoopshype article about him: http://hoopshype.com/articles/orlando_narducci4.htm
Damn you, Shaun Livingston.
I’d be more excited about taking Jared Jordan in the second round than anyone we get in the first round. Okay, not really, but Jared Jordan has been my choice for backup point guard for the past month. No combo guard issues, Jared Jordan is just a straight point guard who knows how to run a team. For an endoresement based solely on statistics, go to the numbers provided by Draft Express:
http://www.draftexpress.com/viewarticle.php?a=2066
Matt G., he’s definitely on DraftExpress, just not currently in their mock draft. You can run a profile search on him, and he’ll come up, or you can just go here:
http://www.draftexpress.com/viewprofile.php?p=1094
I was watching Jared’s numbers as they came out from the Orlando pre-draft camp. He’s played really well against solid competition, and if we can get him at #57 it’ll be another second round steal. In case you missed it, here’s a nice summary of his performance:
http://www.draftexpress.com/viewprofile.php?p=1094
I like Young’s 4.0+ GPA - that takes fierce dedication to pair that with a stellar hoops career.
Then again, how can you go wrong at 7-1, 240, and a name like “Stanko”?
Realgm has us taking Nick Young at 15 which sounds good but passing on Law. http://realgm.com/src_feature/927/20070619/nba_mock_draft_version_40_(final_pool_set)/
Hmm, Young at 15 and Sessions at 27. I could live with that. Seems like it would be hard to pass on Law or Crittenton though. Luckily I feel like this draft is really deep. I wont go so far as to say we can do no wrong with our picks, but it seems like it should be easy to pick two guys to help us out.