The Suns held their one and only open draft work out of the season on Saturday. Dave Griffin actually apologized to the media about not having a more open process this season but said they've relied more on the group workouts and have brought less people in.
Unfortunately for me, the one open workout the team held fell on a day that I was unavailable. The good news is that the team and other media have provided us plenty of draft coverage to ponder. I have to say that this entire draft coverage process while important isn't really that interesting to me. The bottom line is that teams are going to do what they do. Our coverage is really all about trying to predict who might do what and of course to get a better look at the kids. But the real opportunity to see our picks comes in a few weeks in Vegas. That's where I will be watching the Suns new rookies play ball and spending some time with them off the court.
As for yesterday, I've gone over the various reports and watched about 20 minutes of video provided by Suns.com and here's what stood out:
- This is an unusual year in that the top 10 isn't clear cut and there's not large distinctions between groupings of players as in the past
- The Suns "room" is split right now. Unlike in the past at this point, there's no obvious pecking order on the Suns draft board
- The Suns are grouping guys into those that they think are solid "10 year" NBA players and those that are higher risk but might have bigger upside
- Last year the Suns over hyped expectations for both Lopez and Dragic. This year they are down playing the role they expect any rookies to play on the team. I think that has as much to do with PR development as player development
- James Johnson was the star of yesterday's workout showing great effort, fantastic leadership and good ball handling for his size. Kerr compared him to Rodney Rogers. His video interview is impressive and he seems to be impressing people during the work out and interview process
- Earl Clark was the best defender both in the post and on the wing. A few times he got switched on to the speedy Jennings and was able to stay in front of him and deny penetration which is very impressive
- Jennings was fast. I am guessing he's a guy that falls into the high risk, high reward category. He didn't play enough in Italy for anyone to have a really good idea of what he's about as a basketball player beyond his individual skills
Links to the Suns.com video and other media recaps after the jump
Predraft Workout - June 20, 2009 - NBA Videos and Highlights
20 minutes of video from Suns.com. Looking on of course is Kerr and Griffin. Also there is Robert Sarver. So much for him being less involved.
Suns draft options remain wide open
"There's really a split camp in our room for the first time in a long time." Recap from Paul
azcentral.com blogs - Coro's Suns dish: Griff talks Suns draft
Write up from the D Griff portion of the media scrum. You can see this interview on the video at Suns.com. To me, D Griff is the main guy to be listening to if you want to know what's going on in the Suns draft mind
Suns Draft: The final workout| Valley of the Suns
Draft workout from VotS