For Chriss, who began playing basketball seriously five years ago as a ninth grader at Pleasant Grove High School in Sacramento, Calif., the rapid rise from relative basketball unknown to the NBA draft’s green room is a little surreal. From a competitive standpoint, players generally want to be picked as high as possible, but fitting into a team position-wise and role-wise is also critical for rookies.
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Sometime within the first hour of this year’s NBA Draft, being held from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., Hield’s name likely will be called and his life will change for the better and never be the same thereafter.
General Manager Dell Demps and Head Coach Alvin Gentry could go in a number directions with the sixth overall selection. Sabonis could go in the top 10.
According to ESPN Insider Chad Ford, the Pelicans are one of the several teams in the lottery trying to trade their first round pick.
Other notable players who just couldn’t keep their hands to themselves include Baron Davis, who was the No. 3 pick in the 1999 draft after averaging 3.5 fouls per game in his past year at UCLA, and DeMarcus Cousins, who averaged 3.2 fouls per game at Kentucky before going No. 5 in the 2010 draft.
The sneaker battles continue with the NBA Draft on June 23rd. We won’t know until Thursday night where these two former UW stars will play next season, but my projections have Chriss going 4th overall to the Phoenix Suns, as the Suns are the only team he worked out for individually, and I have Murray going 14th overall to the Chicago Bulls. Those worries, obviously, were justified, and National Basketball Association evaluators seem similarly seduced by what Chriss might become. He is a 6-foot-4, 209-pound guard who led the Sooners to the Final Four last season.
By most accounts, the uncertainty with the draft begins with the third pick. Chriss, just a few days removed from signing an endorsement deal with Nike Im just really grateful and relieved that I was able to sign with Nike so early, he said spent Tuesday taking in a New York Yankees game. He sat down for an interview with TNT’s Kenny Smith, in addition to a handful of other stops.
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“I still wear them every day”, he said.
