Gordon can shoot, but does he measure up?
By Chad Ford
NBA Insider
Send an Email to Chad Ford
Friday, May 14
As luck would have it, I stumbled into UConn's Ben Gordon working out at the Sports Club/LA while I was doing a story on Peja Samardziski. The club has two courts, and while Peja was taking a rest on one side, I wandered over to the other side to take a peek at what Gordon was up to.
UConn's Ben Gordon is a superior talent, but his height could hurt his draft stock.
Gordon's been working out for several weeks in New York and looks really good. Living in Connecticut, I've seen more of Gordon than most college players, but I never get over how smooth his outside stroke is. The thing that's special about Gordon is his ability to shoot off the dribble. In several drills, he didn't miss a shot as he zigzagged all around the court catching, taking a few dribbles and then elevating for the shot.
His athleticism is obviously superior. He's a very explosive athlete with a big vertical jump and a very quick first step. His ball-handling skills are good. I watched him do several drills with two basketballs and he looked really good. Overall, he spent a couple of hours in the gym and looked like he was in great shape.
After the workout, Gordon wandered over to Samardziski's court and we talked for a few minutes about his expectations and his decision to declare for the draft.
"I was really tempted to make the jump [to the NBA] last year," Gordon told Insider. "But when I saw how good our team was going to be, I just really wanted to take another shot at winning a national championship. My team won the state championship at the high school level and I wanted to do the same thing at the college level."
Gordon, who's projected as a mid-to-late lottery pick, may have to wait awhile to get that next ring. Lottery picks usually suffer more defeats their first season than than they've experienced in their ENTIRE careers.
"How do you deal with something like that?" Gordon told Insider. "I mean, I play the game to win. I'm not sure how you get used to that."
When I told Gordon that most guys get numb to it after awhile, he promises that he won't. "I can't get used to that. I love to play basketball, but I love to win more. I hope I get taken by a team that is ready to win."
He just might. He should be on the board when teams like the Cavs and Raptors are drafting. While both teams obviously fell short of the playoffs this year, they have a core of players that just needs one missing piece.
Watching Gordon, he kind of reminds me of Gilbert Arenas. He's athletic, tough and has the ability to play both the two and the one. However, one caveat is in order. Gordon is listed at 6-foot-3. I stand 6-foot-1 and was probably an inch taller. That's going to limit his ability to play combo guard in the league and could hurt his stock a bit if teams aren't comfortable with his point guard skills.
So far the consensus around the league on Gordon is split. Some believe he's the second-best point guard prospect in the draft. Others aren't as impressed and compare him to the Grizzlies' Troy Bell. The Grizzlies shocked everyone by taking Bell with the 16th pick in the draft. However, the jury's still out on whether he'll be a good point guard in the league.
Right now, you can say the same thing about Gordon.
Ramos on fire
While Insider was in New York, much of the rest of the league was in Puerto Rico watching 7-foot-3 center Peter John Ramos.
Questions about Peter John Ramos' attitude and work ethic concern some scouts.
Ramos may be the hottest name in the draft right now. He's putting up big numbers in Puerto Rico lately, and the scouts who have made the trip down to Puerto Rico have generally been impressed.
Ramos' agent, Andrew Vye, sent me a third videotape of Ramos from a game he played April 20. In the game Ramos scored 30 points and had nine rebounds. It was, by far, the most impressive look at the big kid so far.
He runs the floor very well, shows surprising touch from 15 feet, puts the ball on the floor on several occasions, attacks the basket and is generally aggressive on the offensive side of the floor. The bottom line? In that game, almost every time Ramos touched the ball something good happened.
There are still negatives. He got stripped of the ball on several occasions, had his shot blocked by a much smaller defender and didn't play much defense at all. Smaller guys were shooting over him at will.
Still, in a draft filled with big projects -- many of whom don't play at all on their teams -- Ramos' ability to put up numbers in the Puerto Rican league will stand out.
Vye has also hired Billy Bayno, the same guy who ran Pavel Podkolzine's workout last year, to help him get prepared for the draft. Bayno, on the video, claims that Ramos is a quick learner and that based on what he's seen, he's a top-10 pick in the draft.
There are several GMs who are saying the same thing. But beware of the hype. Scouts who have been following Ramos for a much longer time think that there are major issues on the court and off the court that will eventually bring his stock back to earth. Questions about his head, work ethic and attitude are everywhere among scouts who've seen him longer. Two scouts compared him to Loren Woods, another talented big kid who never could keep his head in the game.
Remember, however, that it just takes one team to fall in love with a kid, and he seems to have several teams that are going through the process.
Right now, I've still got him projected as the sixth-best center in the draft behind Martynas Andriuskevicius, Pavel Podkolzine, Peja Samardziski, David Harrison and Rafael Araujo. Andriuskevicius and Samardziski are both much more skilled. Podkolzine (who's probably the closest to Ramos) is bigger, stronger and doesn't have the off-the-court issues. Harrison has similar questions about his head, but is a much more known quantity on the talent side. Araujo isn't as big, or athletic, but he's a proven scorer at a big college with great strength and an aggressive attitude that teams like.
Draft Cards
The NBA is expected to release the official list of underclassmen and international players declaring for the draft today. There aren't expected to be any major surprises on the list. Once the list is released, NBA teams can begin scheduling individual workouts with underclassmen. In the meantime, many teams have already begun individual workouts with college seniors. The Bulls had a nice group of players in on Thursday, including Luke Jackson, Romain Sato, Arthur Johnson and Jackson Vroman. Of the four, only Jackson is projected as a possible first-round pick.
Got another look at Damir Omerhodzic in the Samardziski workout. They're both represented by the same agent and Omerhodzic has now moved to New York to work out with Peja. My opinion of him hasn't changed. His athleticism and quickness was striking when going up against a slower, more traditional big man like Samardziski. One interesting note. Omerhodzic, after the workout, decided to start practicing some of his deep shooting range. Standing about 10 feet beyond the NBA 3 point line, he began draining shot after shot. I watched him shoot for about 10 minutes from there and he shot nearly 70 percent from that range. Unbelievable.
Another sleeper I really love sleepers and ran across a kid last week who looked just great in workouts. His name is Romeo Augustine, a 6-foot-8 swingman who, once upon a time, was a top high school prospect who eventually ended up playing a couple of years at Providence.
Augustine is a great athlete, ball handler and perimeter shooter for his size. He was in Cleveland last week working with trainer Eric Lichter and I have to say he's pretty impressive -- a Scottie Pippen-type small forward with lots of skills and a freakish 7-foot-3 wingspan. He played for Bryant College, a Division II school in Rhode Island this year, and was D-2 first team All-American. He averaged 20 ppg and seven rpg there and shot 46 percent from 3. Augustine also plays on the Canadian national team.
Augustine has already drawn some interest from several teams, including the Raptors.
By Chad Ford
NBA Insider
Send an Email to Chad Ford
Friday, May 14
As luck would have it, I stumbled into UConn's Ben Gordon working out at the Sports Club/LA while I was doing a story on Peja Samardziski. The club has two courts, and while Peja was taking a rest on one side, I wandered over to the other side to take a peek at what Gordon was up to.
UConn's Ben Gordon is a superior talent, but his height could hurt his draft stock.
Gordon's been working out for several weeks in New York and looks really good. Living in Connecticut, I've seen more of Gordon than most college players, but I never get over how smooth his outside stroke is. The thing that's special about Gordon is his ability to shoot off the dribble. In several drills, he didn't miss a shot as he zigzagged all around the court catching, taking a few dribbles and then elevating for the shot.
His athleticism is obviously superior. He's a very explosive athlete with a big vertical jump and a very quick first step. His ball-handling skills are good. I watched him do several drills with two basketballs and he looked really good. Overall, he spent a couple of hours in the gym and looked like he was in great shape.
After the workout, Gordon wandered over to Samardziski's court and we talked for a few minutes about his expectations and his decision to declare for the draft.
"I was really tempted to make the jump [to the NBA] last year," Gordon told Insider. "But when I saw how good our team was going to be, I just really wanted to take another shot at winning a national championship. My team won the state championship at the high school level and I wanted to do the same thing at the college level."
Gordon, who's projected as a mid-to-late lottery pick, may have to wait awhile to get that next ring. Lottery picks usually suffer more defeats their first season than than they've experienced in their ENTIRE careers.
"How do you deal with something like that?" Gordon told Insider. "I mean, I play the game to win. I'm not sure how you get used to that."
When I told Gordon that most guys get numb to it after awhile, he promises that he won't. "I can't get used to that. I love to play basketball, but I love to win more. I hope I get taken by a team that is ready to win."
He just might. He should be on the board when teams like the Cavs and Raptors are drafting. While both teams obviously fell short of the playoffs this year, they have a core of players that just needs one missing piece.
Watching Gordon, he kind of reminds me of Gilbert Arenas. He's athletic, tough and has the ability to play both the two and the one. However, one caveat is in order. Gordon is listed at 6-foot-3. I stand 6-foot-1 and was probably an inch taller. That's going to limit his ability to play combo guard in the league and could hurt his stock a bit if teams aren't comfortable with his point guard skills.
So far the consensus around the league on Gordon is split. Some believe he's the second-best point guard prospect in the draft. Others aren't as impressed and compare him to the Grizzlies' Troy Bell. The Grizzlies shocked everyone by taking Bell with the 16th pick in the draft. However, the jury's still out on whether he'll be a good point guard in the league.
Right now, you can say the same thing about Gordon.
Ramos on fire
While Insider was in New York, much of the rest of the league was in Puerto Rico watching 7-foot-3 center Peter John Ramos.
Questions about Peter John Ramos' attitude and work ethic concern some scouts.
Ramos may be the hottest name in the draft right now. He's putting up big numbers in Puerto Rico lately, and the scouts who have made the trip down to Puerto Rico have generally been impressed.
Ramos' agent, Andrew Vye, sent me a third videotape of Ramos from a game he played April 20. In the game Ramos scored 30 points and had nine rebounds. It was, by far, the most impressive look at the big kid so far.
He runs the floor very well, shows surprising touch from 15 feet, puts the ball on the floor on several occasions, attacks the basket and is generally aggressive on the offensive side of the floor. The bottom line? In that game, almost every time Ramos touched the ball something good happened.
There are still negatives. He got stripped of the ball on several occasions, had his shot blocked by a much smaller defender and didn't play much defense at all. Smaller guys were shooting over him at will.
Still, in a draft filled with big projects -- many of whom don't play at all on their teams -- Ramos' ability to put up numbers in the Puerto Rican league will stand out.
Vye has also hired Billy Bayno, the same guy who ran Pavel Podkolzine's workout last year, to help him get prepared for the draft. Bayno, on the video, claims that Ramos is a quick learner and that based on what he's seen, he's a top-10 pick in the draft.
There are several GMs who are saying the same thing. But beware of the hype. Scouts who have been following Ramos for a much longer time think that there are major issues on the court and off the court that will eventually bring his stock back to earth. Questions about his head, work ethic and attitude are everywhere among scouts who've seen him longer. Two scouts compared him to Loren Woods, another talented big kid who never could keep his head in the game.
Remember, however, that it just takes one team to fall in love with a kid, and he seems to have several teams that are going through the process.
Right now, I've still got him projected as the sixth-best center in the draft behind Martynas Andriuskevicius, Pavel Podkolzine, Peja Samardziski, David Harrison and Rafael Araujo. Andriuskevicius and Samardziski are both much more skilled. Podkolzine (who's probably the closest to Ramos) is bigger, stronger and doesn't have the off-the-court issues. Harrison has similar questions about his head, but is a much more known quantity on the talent side. Araujo isn't as big, or athletic, but he's a proven scorer at a big college with great strength and an aggressive attitude that teams like.
Draft Cards
The NBA is expected to release the official list of underclassmen and international players declaring for the draft today. There aren't expected to be any major surprises on the list. Once the list is released, NBA teams can begin scheduling individual workouts with underclassmen. In the meantime, many teams have already begun individual workouts with college seniors. The Bulls had a nice group of players in on Thursday, including Luke Jackson, Romain Sato, Arthur Johnson and Jackson Vroman. Of the four, only Jackson is projected as a possible first-round pick.
Got another look at Damir Omerhodzic in the Samardziski workout. They're both represented by the same agent and Omerhodzic has now moved to New York to work out with Peja. My opinion of him hasn't changed. His athleticism and quickness was striking when going up against a slower, more traditional big man like Samardziski. One interesting note. Omerhodzic, after the workout, decided to start practicing some of his deep shooting range. Standing about 10 feet beyond the NBA 3 point line, he began draining shot after shot. I watched him shoot for about 10 minutes from there and he shot nearly 70 percent from that range. Unbelievable.
Another sleeper I really love sleepers and ran across a kid last week who looked just great in workouts. His name is Romeo Augustine, a 6-foot-8 swingman who, once upon a time, was a top high school prospect who eventually ended up playing a couple of years at Providence.
Augustine is a great athlete, ball handler and perimeter shooter for his size. He was in Cleveland last week working with trainer Eric Lichter and I have to say he's pretty impressive -- a Scottie Pippen-type small forward with lots of skills and a freakish 7-foot-3 wingspan. He played for Bryant College, a Division II school in Rhode Island this year, and was D-2 first team All-American. He averaged 20 ppg and seven rpg there and shot 46 percent from 3. Augustine also plays on the Canadian national team.
Augustine has already drawn some interest from several teams, including the Raptors.
