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I thought this deserved it's own thread, since it will be an ongoing process with constant updated information. The first player Ford writes about is Blake Griffin.

"• Many top picks at this time of year are getting fitted for their suit on draft night and flying around the country trying to ink endorsement deals. Griffin is an exception. He's more concerned with dominating right out of the gate.

Griffin said last year that he didn't declare for the 2008 NBA draft because he didn't feel he was ready for the league. This year he knows he is. And he's determined to prove it.

On the court, his workout is run by former Spurs and Sonics head coach Bob Hill, whose regimen on Monday highlighted a couple of talents we didn't see from Griffin when he was at Oklahoma.

First, Griffin appears to be a much better ballhandler than your average big man, excelling at two-ball and three-ball drills as well as change-of-direction drills. In fact, he had a better handle than anyone else on the court, including combo guard Anthony Goods.

Second, Griffin can shoot the ball with range. He's no Ray Allen, but he showed the ability to consistently hit the college 3-point shot in the workout. If he can just make a 15-foot jumper in the NBA, he could be unstoppable.

The rest of the stuff you already know. Matched up against another physical specimen, UConn's Jeff Adrien, Griffin showed his quickness, strength and explosive leaping ability on a number of post and shell drills. He also played more physical defense than we saw from him at Oklahoma.

Griffin was pretty open about his biggest perceived weakness: his lack of defense at Oklahoma.

"I was on a team where I couldn't get in foul trouble," Griffin said. "Coach [Jeff] Capel was pretty clear that I needed to be on the floor. So I was always conscious, maybe too conscious, about picking up fouls.

"I definitely [think] that it's an area of my game that needs improvement. But I feel like I'm going to be a good defender in the NBA. I like to play defense."

• Griffin looks like the closest thing to Superman the NBA has seen since Dwight Howard, and I really got to see that up close in his workouts with fitness trainer Frank Matrisciano, who has been called "Hell's Trainer." Whatever Matrisciano threw his way, Griffin took it, excelled at it and was waiting for more.

"It's really pushed me," Griffin said. "I want to be challenged. I want to be the best, and I know that means I have to be ready physically and mentally for the league. When I met Frank, I thought this could help get me there. It was a huge help last season and I think it will continue to give me an edge as I prepare for summer league. I'm not doing this to get drafted. I'm doing this so I'm ready for the NBA."

• Everyone has been asking me about Griffin's height. I didn't see him measured. Coach Hill said he's 6-foot-10 in shoes, though if I were to guess, I'd say 6-foot-9. He was noticeably taller than Kenny Thomas, who's listed as 6-foot-7. Either way, I don't think it's going to matter -- regardless of how he measures, he's the No. 1 pick.

• While people close to him say Griffin is a practical joker off the court (he once said he wanted to host "Saturday Night Live" someday), when it comes to workouts he is fiercely competitive, focused and anxious to push himself as hard as he can.

"There can be a lot of nonsense in this business," said Hill. "But for Blake, this is serious. He wants to be the best and he's willing to work tirelessly to make it happen. I've just been amazed at how professionally he's handling all of this. He gets that it takes hard work to be great in the league and he's willing to do it."

Blake's cohorts
Griffin wasn't the only guy working out in San Francisco. Three other prospects, UConn's Jeff Adrien, Stanford's Anthony Goods and Blake's brother, Taylor, were also prepping for the draft. They were joined by former Mavs second-round pick Nick Fazekas and Sacramento Kings forward Kenny Thomas.

• Of the rest of the group, Goods had the best workout. Goods hasn't gotten much attention in terms of the draft and wasn't even invited to the Portsmouth Invitational. But while he wasn't a dominant college player, he has a couple of things going for him.

First, Goods can be an excellent shooter with deep range. Second, he's athletic, with a quick first step and explosive leaping ability. Third, he's a hard worker.

He's not the athlete Griffin is, but he also went through Matrisciano's training in an impressive fashion. When Matrisciano gave him an incredibly difficult task to do when he was dog-tired, Goods said, "This isn't good, it's great." And he meant it.

On the downside, Goods is a bit undersized as a 2-guard and didn't show a natural ability to play the point at Stanford. He was also a very streaky shooter at Stanford. That didn't show in the gym here, but it may become more apparent in high-stress settings.

• Adrien is also interesting. He's strong as an ox and quite physical, and he has a decent face-the-basket game. When matched up alongside Griffin, he didn't look great, but he'll look better when he isn't matched up against the best player in the draft.

• Of the three, Blake's brother Taylor appears to be the biggest sleeper. He has been living in Blake's shadow the last two seasons at Oklahoma, but after his workout, I wondered why we hadn't been watching him more carefully.

He has some of the same strengths as his brother -- he's tough, physical, an excellent athlete and a very hard worker. He also showed off an impressive jumper in the workout with legit NBA 3-point range.

More than that, he does the kinds of things that might help a team win -- he could be an intangibles guy in the mold of Shane Battier. I could see him making the league as a defensive stopper at the 3 who can also provide some offense in spot-up situations."

Seems like Griffin is a hard worker, and if we land the top pick, it will be fun trying to decide whether we just take Griffin or trade down.

I've been and still am a proponent of taking Griffin and keeping him if we get the top pick. He could easily end up being our best player. I definitely think he'll end up being better than Love and Jefferson.

Wait, three ball dribbling drills? Does he have another arm?

john2jer wrote:Wait, three ball dribbling drills? Does he have another arm?

Maybe its a 3rd leg..

2 things.

1.) When I have heard of 2 and 3 ball drills it was in references to dribbles with a move not the actual number of balls. So maybe a triple threat sweep with 2 dribbles-move-shot. or 3 dribbles-move-shot. Just my experience.

2.) Shooting and ball handling rumors like this are just going to continue the idea that he could be a SF.

Blake Griffin is the next LeBron James.

Nice.

My fearless prediction for this year might actually come true. DeAndre Jordan didn't quite impress the scouts last year like he impressed me. But Grffin playing the three in a wolves jersey is gonna make up for it.

Dang. I don't know if he could play the SF but if he could, that's one heck of a frontline - Jefferson/Love/Griffin

revprodeji wrote:2 things.

1.) When I have heard of 2 and 3 ball drills it was in references to dribbles with a move not the actual number of balls. So maybe a triple threat sweep with 2 dribbles-move-shot. or 3 dribbles-move-shot. Just my experience.

2.) Shooting and ball handling rumors like this are just going to continue the idea that he could be a SF.

Third thing, it should be noted that Ford made similar statements regarding Greg Oden's ballhanndling ability when he came out (although not of the "best ballhandler in the workout" ilk because Conley was working out with Oden).

The next player Ford covered was Hasheem Thabeet.

"LOS ANGELES -- UConn big man Hasheem Thabeet is one of the most polarizing players in the draft.

NBA scouts and executives either love him or hate him as a prospect. The majority are enamored with Thabeet's size, mobility and elite shot-blocking ability. They see a player who could instantly make a difference on the defensive end of the floor and think he should be a top-five pick in the draft. A few even have him ranked as high as No. 2 on their draft boards.

A smaller group thinks he could be a bust, and I have been in that camp for the past two years. As good as Thabeet's defensive abilities are, he looked awkward, mechanical and uncertain on offense at UConn. He also lacked the toughness to be a terrific rebounder and seemed to back down when more physical players, such as Pitt's DeJuan Blair, came after him.

But after spending a day in L.A. getting to know Thabeet and watching him work out, my stance has started to change. What I saw in L.A. this week was a player who has a lot more upside than I thought. Here's why.

Climbing the dunes
Thabeet's day starts at 9 a.m. at Sand Dune Park in Manhattan Beach, Calif. The park is an enormous sand dune that rises several hundred feet on a 60-degree incline. Running up something like that is akin to running in quicksand. For every step you take, you slip back half the distance.

Thabeet's strength trainer, Tom Vachet, a tough-looking former Navy Seal with tattooed arms and a goatee, runs the drill. With stopwatch in hand, Vachet yells go, and Thabeet, all 7 feet and 3 inches of him, starts chugging up the dune.

Sand is flying. Thabeet is panting. And as he reaches his destination, an orange cone positioned about halfway up the hill, he dives for it.

"6.8 seconds!" Vachet yells out. It isn't the fastest score. But an out-of-breath Thabeet is smiling. The fact that he completed it, and will do it 10 more times, is a feat. (I made it two-thirds of the way up the hill and was spent.)

Thabeet continues doing stint after stint until he's clearly exhausted. What's impressive is the way he powers through it. He finishes every set, no matter how tired he is.

On top of that, Vachet tells me he doesn't believe Thabeet has ever lifted weights or done any sort of the core training that Vachet excels in.

"That kid has no quit in him," Vachet says. "That's an intangible few kids really have."

The climb from Africa to the NBA
Thabeet grew up in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and the NBA was never really his dream.

"I was tall since I was a child," Thabeet says. "We had lots of basketball courts around. But they were empty. Everyone wanted to play soccer. That was the sport we loved."

Part of the reason Thabeet loved soccer was that to him, basketball looked like a contact sport. The players were meaner and more physical. He kept telling coaches he just didn't have what it took to play the game.

However, through the prodding of a coach, Thabeet decided to try basketball. According to Thabeet, he made the first free throw he took. Then he made his first dunk. From there he was hooked.

"It gave me confidence that I could do this," Thabeet said. "When I have confidence I can do something, I do it."

Seven years later, Thabeet is auditioning for a role in the NBA. His game has improved dramatically from year to year, first at a prep school in Houston and then for the past three years under the tutelage of Jim Calhoun at UConn.

He's a relative newcomer to the game -- he didn't grow up watching the game, playing Little League or AAU. So, his confidence has been built one day at a time.

"Coach Calhoun just kept telling me that if I keep working hard, I'll get better," Thabeet says. "At first it was hard. He was yelling at me before I even started playing for them.

"One day in the summer, he happened to walk in the gym while I was playing. I was making a mistake. He made a beeline over to me and started to dig in. But now I look back at it and I'm grateful for what he gave me."

Thabeet is warm and engaging. He's honest about his weaknesses and strengths. He recognizes the extraordinary opportunity he has been afforded and vows to follow his mentor, Emeka Okafor of the Charlotte Bobcats, in using his wealth and influence to make a difference back home.

As far as basketball goes, he still wants for confidence at times, but underneath the surface is a quiet, insistent determination to make it happen.

"When they first brought him in," Vachet says, "I wasn't sure. Did the game find him, or was he a kid who found the game? There's a big difference there.

"Every day he gets better. I think he loves the game now. That's why he's going to be special."

The court of dreams
Watching Thabeet run up sand dunes or listening to him talk about his journey from Africa to the NBA draft are nice. But at the end of the day, the question is: Can he play?

Thabeet's on-the-court work is being run by former NBA assistant coach and current D-League coach Scott Roth, who has worked with Dirk Nowitzki in Dallas and Pau Gasol in Memphis. His specialty is helping big men make the transition to the pros.

Thabeet's workout is fast-paced. He begins with perimeter work -- mostly midrange jumpers coming off screens, pick-and-roll jump shots and some set shots.

Thabeet showed a soft touch on his shot and excellent follow-through. Although he palmed the ball a little too much, he shot with great accuracy from 15 feet in. I was stunned. Swish after swish was not what I was expecting.

He's not Brad Miller or Mehmet Okur, but when you look at his mechanics and confidence in shooting the ball, I don't think there's any question that Thabeet could become a pick-and-pop big man over time.

He also looks as though he's continuing to improve his balance and mobility. Although he's only a few weeks into the process, Thabeet looks less mechanical running the floor and making moves than he did at UConn.

He also showed good form in the post. His footwork still needs improvement, but he scored with both his left and right hand over former NBA big man Sean Marks.

"He's going to be a very good shooter," Roth says. "He's going to be a pick-and-pop guy who can knock down the 16- or 17-footer. He's going to shock people. I'm not sure how you can walk out of the gym and not be wowed by him with only six years of basketball. He's a fluid player with a huge, huge upside. You don't think he's going to do some of the things he can."

The summit
We've said for several months that Thabeet likely will be a top-five pick. The NBA mantra -- that you can't teach size -- has helped him greatly. But watching him in the gym, it's a little easier to see why he could be a high pick for more reasons than just his height. His combination of size, athleticism and emerging skills is rare -- especially in this draft.

To be the next Dikembe Mutombo, Thabeet still has work to do. He has to get stronger. He needs to keep up his conditioning. He needs more experience. He has to let the game come to him. And he has to improve his decision-making on the court. But most importantly, he needs to go to a team that gives him confidence.

Put him in a bad situation with a coach who's an obsessive faultfinder, and he could fail. Put him in a good situation with a coach and teammates who give him reason to believe, and maybe those Mutombo comparisons aren't as far off as I once believed.

• Click here for my notes on other workouts: Gonzaga's Austin Daye, UCLA's Darren Collison and Washington's Jon Brockman Insider

Coming next: Arizona State's James Harden"

You really shouldn't be posting full articles on here like that. Just post the link, an excerpt, or a summary.

I'm not liking Ford's thinking -- Thabeet is good a running up sand dunes = 2nd pick in the draft?

Oh Dr.! Thabeet could be dominating Shaq, Yao, or Howard and you would find fault with him (just teasing you.)

Thabeet is still one of the bigger swing for the fences guys in our draft range, and I still take that swing if Griffin or Rubio aren't available. He is raw, inexperienced and limited in overall skill set, BUT he still consistently improving and adding skills to his (currently limited, but growing) skill set. Another hard worker and as he is learning and starting to "get it". He will need more time, but learning on the job will also help him as he needs game experience. Next year, given or probable team make up and injuries, would be a good time to learn. Also, the young team with minimal attitudes should be the right envirionment for him, provided the new coach doesn't change that. Great to hear about him, can't see how one can be more negative on him after reading that (though I was concerned until they actually got to the basketball part.)

Griffin does seem possible at SF maybe, that would be scare many teams. Still, would want him to have numerous post up opportunities no matter which position he would play. I am less inclined to want to trade Griffin now if we did end up with the number 1.

horaceworthy wrote:Third thing, it should be noted that Ford made similar statements regarding Greg Oden's ballhanndling ability when he came out (although not of the "best ballhandler in the workout" ilk because Conley was working out with Oden).

The way he moves and handles is similar to Beasley for me. I am not saying he handles like odom, but I think he could develop a face up from the SF spot. I think he needs to be fixed defensively regardless of his position, but athletically he can do it. Offensively it would be exciting with Griffin attacking, Love as a high post option/passing/setting back screens for Griffin and Al being a beast. Our offensive glass would be owned.

I wasn't trying to make a case for or against Griffin at SF, just saying that comments like these by Ford need to be taken with a grain of salt.

Here's one I was excited for Ford to cover: James Harden. As suggested, I won't paste the whole article, but just a few main points and the link. Some things that are interesting:
1. Roy Comparisons. Same type of player. High intelligence in college without overwhelming athleticism. Ford says that he's leaner and trimmer since college and will surprise people at the combine with his athletic ability.
2. Size. I'm one of the people that is very worried about his size. Harden's trainer claims he is 6'5.5 in shoes. If this is true, then I'd say I'd be satisfied with Harden. I just don't want another McCants or Foye.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/draft2009 ... our-090515

The weird thing with harden is the lack of official measurements. if the 6'11 wingspan is legit then we lose our height concern.

He is the clear #3

revprodeji wrote:The weird thing with harden is the lack of official measurements. if the 6'11 wingspan is legit then we lose our height concern.

He is the clear #3

6'11" wing span is pretty sick for his height

Heres some measurement history for those clasified as SG's drafted in top 15
http://www.draftexpress.com/nba-pre-dra ... t=15&sort=

There's an article to that lists his vert as 32(but harden lobbied to say its 38"").

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/20/sport ... arden.html

bruce, that NY article is very good.