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Daily draft dose: Invitations go out
By Andy Katz
ESPN.com
Here are the latest rumors and happenings surrounding the 2000 NBA draft (through June 24):
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KATZ'S FORECAST:
Top 10 steals in the draft
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1. Lavor Postell, 6-6, Sr., St. John's
2. Desmond Mason, 6-5, Sr., Oklahoma State
3. Mark Madsen, 6-9, Sr., Stanford
4. Eduardo Najera, 6-8, Sr., Oklahoma
5. Ernest Brown, 7-0, Soph., Indian Hills (Iowa) CC
6. Cory Hightower, 6-8, Soph., Indian Hills (Iowa) CC
7. Dan Langhi, 6-11, Sr., Vanderbilt
8. Eddie Gill, 6-0, Sr., Weber State
9. Marko Jaric, 6-7, Fortitudo Bologna, Italy
10. Brian Cardinal, 6-8, Sr., Purdue
For Katz's complete mock draft, click here.
Workout buzz: Alexios Amanatidis-Zevrosenko has gone from being off the charts to
having a chance at being taken in the second round. Courtside Report's Dejan
Vidicki reports that he worked out well for Seattle, San Antonio, New Jersey
and Milwaukee. Amanatidis-Zevrosenko played sparingly with his Greek club
and was discovered at the Court Side Pre-draft camp in Budapest, Hungary
last month. His mobility and agility peeked the interest of clubs. He has
been measured at 7 feet, 2 inches with shoes. Amanatidis-Zevrosenko played
in only 21 games the past two seasons, averaging two points.
Amanatidis-Zevrosenko is originally from Krasnadar, Russia, but his mother
is Greek, which allowed him to play for the Olympiakos team in Greece.
Meanwhile, 7-1 Croatian Dalibor Bagaric and 6-6 Croatian Josip Sesar held private workouts in Chicago Friday. But neither was
impressive enough to earn first-round status. Almost half of the NBA teams
showed up at the Moody Bible Institute to check out the pair of Croatians
who couldn't get to the pre-draft camp two weeks ago because of commitments
to the national team.
Both are expected to go in the second round. Sesar averaged
14.2 points shot 40 percent on 3s in the Euroleague. He's a big point, which
makes him a tantalizing pick for someone in the second round. Bagaric
averaged 18.3 points a game last season for Benston Zagreb and has the size
teams covet in the second round.
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1. Mateen Cleaves not invited: According to the NBA, Michigan
State's Mateen Cleaves wasn't invited to the NBA draft Wednesday in
Minneapolis.
Cleaves, who led the Spartans to the national title in April, wasn't
among the 16 players who were invited to sit in the Green Room, walk up and
grab a team hat, shake NBA commissioner David Stern's hand and meet the
national media at the Target Center.
In fact, Michigan freshman point Jamal Crawford was the only
point guard invited to the draft.
The NBA doesn't want to be embarrassed by inviting players
who aren't locks for either the lottery, or at the very least, the first
round. Using these standards, the NBA is confident that Crawford will be a
high draft pick. In fact, almost all of the expected 13 lottery picks should
be covered. The only players who were invited who will likely go outside the
lottery were Duke's Chris Carrawell, Syracuse's Etan Thomas and Michigan State's Morris Peterson. The only player who could slip into the lottery who
wasn't invited was center Olumide Oyedeji of Nigeria.
Cleaves could still slip into the lottery at No. 13 to
Orlando but could also fall as low as No. 29 to the Lakers. High-profile
point guards Keyon Dooling of Missouri and Erick Barkley of St. John's were not
invited, either.
The list of 16 invited players who will get face time when their
name is called Wednesday are:
Courtney Alexander, G, Fresno State, 6-5, 210
Chris Carrawell, G, Duke, 6-6, 215
Jamal Crawford, G, Michigan, 6-6, 190
Marcus Fizer, F, Iowa State, 6-8, 250
DerMarr Johnson, G, Cincinnati, 6-9, 200
Kenyon Martin, C/F, Cincinnati, 6-9, 230
Chris Mihm, C, Texas, 7-0, 262
Darius Miles, F, East St. Louis HS, 6-9, 217
Mike Miller, F, Florida, 6-8, 218
Jerome Moiso, F, UCLA, 6-10, 235
Morris Peterson, F, Michigan State, 6-7, 215
Joel Przybilla, C, Minnesota, 7-1, 260
Quentin Richardson, G, DePaul, 6-6, 225
Stromile Swift, F, LSU, 6-9, 225
Etan Thomas, F/C, Syracuse, 6-9, 256
Iakovos Tsakalidis, C, AEK (Greece), 7-2, 282
2. Denver shocks the first round: The Nuggets' trade for the
Jazz's 26th pick came as a shock after coach Dan Issel made comments that
there weren't impact players in this draft. The Nuggets are expected to
complete a deal with the Mavericks, which should include Dallas center Sean
Rooks. But they're still expected to go after a center with the 26th pick.
There should be plenty available.
Denver's list will include Auburn's Mamadou N'Diaye, Cincinnati
Stuff center Soumaila Samake, Kentucky's Jamaal Magloire and LSU's Jabari Smith. The Nuggets have had all four of them in for workouts. The Nuggets'
centers are more like power forwards in Keon Clark and Raef LaFrentz. Denver
could use a true low-post scorer. But Issel does love Utah's Hanno Mottola. If he's on the board, he could get picked by Denver. Issel loved his ability
to shoot from the perimeter during a workout, even though he could be
compared to LaFrentz.
Denver will not trade this pick. The Nuggets made the trade to get a big
man or a skilled shooter like Mottola.
3. O'Neal trade off? The word in the NBA is that Portland is
hedging on dealing Jermaine O'Neal for a top pick. The Blazers have figured
out that O'Neal may be better than anyone they could land in the draft in a
trade. Portland may still try and swing a deal for Jamal Crawford. The
Magic may pick him at No. 13 and deal him to either Portland or
Philadelphia.
4. Orlando going big at No. 5? The consensus among NBA teams is
that if Chicago grabs Darius Miles at No. 4, the Magic will go with a big
man -- either Texas' Chris Mihm or Minnesota's Joel Przybilla at No. 5. That
could affect what the Magic do at No. 10 and No. 13. If they grab a big man
at five, they may back off picking UCLA's Jerome Moiso at No. 10. The Magic
are still high on high school senior DeShawn Stevenson and DePaul's Quentin
Richardson. One of the two guards could go as high as 10. If the Magic get
Mihm or Przybilla at five, Moiso, Stevenson or Richardson at No. 10, dealing
No. 13 is probably a must. Stevenson continues to work out well for teams.
He is being talked about as high as 10 and as low as 29.
5. Tsakalidis to get out of contract for a price: Greek center
Iakovos Tsakalidis would have to pay most of his $1.3 million salary to get
out of his contract and play next season. The Cavs are reportedly willing to
pay $350,000 of the price tag. The deal has to be struck before Wednesday's
draft. At this point, a team that hasn't tried to work out the deal with
Tsakalidis and AEK Greece won't pick him Wednesday. There's no way a team
will pick him and introduce him at a Thursday news conference without having
a deal in place for him to play next season. This issue will go down to the
final hours of the draft.
ESPN.com's Andy Katz will be checking in every day with the latest draft news leading up to the June 28 event.
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