Thursday, June 7, 2007

Planned Pre-Draft Workouts

UPDATED: Reports of planned private workouts with teams are beginning to trickle in...obviously most teams will work out the guys they are serious about drafting, but it's not to say teams don't use player workouts as misdirection. Check out the RealGM discussion here.

  • Chad Ford reported the Bucks are working out Al Horford (in case he slips to 6), Jeff Green (makes sense), and Al Thornton (who is definitely projected later than 6). There's often little rhyme or reason to who teams work out, but Thornton's invitation suggests the Bucks could be interested in trading down.
  • Jonathon Givony of DraftExpress notes that Corey Brewer is scheduled to workout for the Bucks on June 19th.
  • Chuck Gardner of the JS reported that the Bucks had a call planned with Yi Jialian's reps on Monday.
  • Gery Woelfel reported a week ago that Joakim Noah said he was NOT working out for the Bucks, and that he did not elaborate as to why. At first it seemed as though Noah might not have wanted to work out for the Bucks, but later it was rumored that the Bucks did not ask him. Either way it's a curious situation given Noah (love him or hate him) would provide the sort of frontcourt shot-blocking, defensive energy, and general unselfishness that the team could certainly use. And from Noah's perspective, could he really dislike Milwaukee enough that he'd prefer to drop a few spots in the lottery? At this point it seems likely he's not in the top 5. I've started to wonder whether it might be a smokescreen, especially considering that Noah's considerable college experience means most teams should more or less know what they're getting from him. He also did a private workout earlier this month with Yi and Brewer, which the Bucks may or may not have been invited to. Of course, by the rationale they wouldn't need to bring Brewer in for a workout, which they are...
  • NBADraft.net interviewed Texas A&M PG Acie Law, who said he has a workout scheduled with the Bucks. This one is kinda interesting since Law is considered more of a late lottery/mid-first round pick, and of course because he's another PG.
  • UPDATE: On the RealGM forum there's word that Brandan Wright has a workout scheduled June 15th while Julian Wright and Carl Landry have workouts scheduled but without a specific date. The Wrights are both possible at #6, while the 6'9", 248 lb Landry is a Milwaukee native that most had projected somewhere in the second round. However, while he was typically listed at 6'7" in college, in Orlando he measured out at nearly 6'9" in shoes, along with finishing second in the bench press (21 reps) and maxing out at a 36" vertical. While I don't like to put a ton of emphasis on the combine stuff, Landry's a guy who was very productive at Purdue but was generally considered undersized given his post mentality, so measuring out taller than people expected (a rarity) could be a huge boost. If he's almost 6'9" with good athleticism and a nice post game you'd think he could sneak into the first round. He's still not a great rebounder or shot-blocker, but check out the box score of Purdue's season-ending loss to Florida in the tournament. He put up 18/10 with 4 assists vs. Horford and Noah.

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