Sixers Draft Workout Schedule

[STChaser]

Sixer Fixer,
Well I agree that players should want to find the right "fit" so they can maximize their potential. But that being said, where the hell is Speights? You talk about the perfect fit, eh? On paper at least, he IS the perfect fit and yet so far, he's been a no-show. I'll tell you this, if I'm DiLeo and it comes down to Speights or Greene, I would have to give the edge to Greene just based on the fact that he had the decency to make the visit. I want a player who wants to be here.

I can't imagine a better place to play than Philly in terms of a young PF looking to get playing time. Having watched how quickly Thaddeus was integrated into the lineup, and judging how young this team is as a whole, I would be salivating at the chance to play here.

STChaser

[The Sixer Fixer]

Sixer Fixer,
Well I agree that players should want to find the right "fit" so they can maximize their potential. But that being said, where the hell is Speights?
STChaser

Do we know the Sixers tried to get Speights here and he shot them down? I remember watching an interview with him and he said he already had attended a bunch of workouts and had a bunch left on his list. Do we know we are not on his list? I would find that very hard to beleive. Keep in mind, these guys agents are probably trying to coordinate workouts in the same part of the country for days close to eachother. I know he was out West earlier last week. Maybe he's got some east coast workouts scheduled for later this week? There is still a lot of time before the draft.

[SendEm]

I wouldn't be surprised if the Sixers observed or will observe the Speights workout for the Nets...

[The Sixer Fixer]

I wouldn't be surprised if the Sixers observed or will observe the Speights workout for the Nets...

If they did, they are keeping it a good secret. He visited the Nets on June 6th.

[tk76]

Maybe Speights got a promise from the Nets at #10?

[Skates]

I think there are several things going on here and it's not necessarily a Philly problem.

First the new rules this year put in place by the NBA limited individual workouts until after the pre-draft camp held by the NBA. This was supposed to get more players to participate in the camp, although the success of that idea was tepid at best. While it seems like there is still a lot of time for these workouts remember that players other than the top 5-6 guys in most draft really have no idea where they are slotting and this year is worse than usual. There are any number of guys that could go anywhere between 8-22, it is a dep draft at that point, but not a lot of difference in talent level between the players. Therefore, there are a lot of teams interested in seeing a lot of players. The logistics make a ton of visits in this newly limited time more difficult. There is also a greater risk of injury with too many workouts or being tired from so much travel/audition time that they may end up performing poorly in their workouts. Batum, Walker and Arthur to name a few have all suffered workout related injuries already. This is why so many teams have been working on getting mass workouts together for large numbers of players and teams (hey, kind of like what the pre-draft camp is supposed to do).

Second, because there are a lot of players who think they will land in the lower end of the lottery I don't think it unlikely that some players and/or their agents are cherry picking their work-outs. I think they feel that if they start working out for teams lower than where they think they belong in the draft that it might be a self-fulfilling prophecy. They want to give the impression that they belong in a certain spot. This will undoubtedly back fire for some players that don't get picked in the late lottery and slide even farther because they failed to workout for teams just outside of the lottery like Philadelphia.

The Sixers are also in a tough draft slot. They are picking just outside of the lottery as noted before and they are picking right behind two or three teams that will be looking for the same kind of players, mobile bigs and shooters, in Phoenix, GS and Portland. They also don't have multiple first rounders (yet?) like the Nets, Sonics and Griz have. Plus, as pointed out before there can often be visits and workouts that the press and public are not privy to.

I don't think the difficulty in getting draft prospects to visit is a slight directed at the Sixers in most cases. They are a young team, but one with lots of needs and openings. It is obviously a team on the rise with a player-friendly coach and new managment that seems to be spoken well of in league circles. Next year you may see teams outside of the top 5 working on regional mass workouts more and more and more teams traveling to see prospects workout on their campus or training facility, rather than bringing them in to the team's facilities.

[tk76]

Good points.

Back when the Sixers had their secret Iguodala workout I assume it was because Iguodala was not supposed to fall to 9, so it would "look bad" for him to work out publicly for the Sixers.

I would guess Philly is in a similar position right now with a bunch of the players projected to go in the late lottery.

[philbe311]

Per sixers.com, Speights along with Ryan Anderson will be in tomorrow...

http://www.nba.com/sixers/draft/draft_center_08.html

[The Sixer Fixer]

Saw this from a site covering the Nets..

So from what I can gather, Galinari is on the Nets' list, but nothing has been decided yet. They still want to see more players, including Russell Westbrook and Joe Alexander and probably will head to Philly later this week to see a workout that features Anthony Randolph, Ryan Anderson, Alexander and Nicolas Batum.

http://njmg.typepad.com/zzone/2008/06/g ... .html#more

[tk76]

Good news that some good prospects will be coming to town.

I would like to see official measurements ion Speights.

[The Sixer Fixer]

FYI

From DraftExpress

Philadelphia will be conducting a group workout on Tuesday, which will be open to two other teams drafting immediately after them—Toronto and Washington--featuring prospects such as Darrell Arthur, Marreese Speights, Jason Thompson and Alexis Ajinca. Their pick could very likely come out of this group, although they are rumored to have strong interest in DeAndre Jordan as well, who they recently worked out, and will very likely be on the board here.