Nets Wrap up First Week of Workouts
Posted by staff@njnets.com
June 7, 2008

While much of the basketball world has their attention focused on the retro Celtics-Lakers Finals series, the Nets basketball brain trust was hard at work this week, as they brought in a group of players this week for workouts in preparation for the 2008 NBA Draft.

With the draft less than a month away, and a bevy of picks, including the 10th, 21st and 40th selections, the Nets looked at six players a day from Wednesday to Saturday at their practice facility in hopes of finding the player who could be the next piece to their championship puzzle. Nets President Rod Thorn, General Manager Kiki Vandeweghe, Head Coach Lawrence Frank, Director of Scouting Greg Polinsky and other Nets basketball executives were all on hand as assistant coaches Brian Hill and Pat Sullivan ran players through a series drills and three-on-three contests.

The workouts gave the Nets brass a chance to get a closer look at the players that they have scouted all season.

“When you travel around and see them play in games you see them from afar. You watch them on DVD and on TV but you don’t get the personal interaction,” Vandeweghe said. “We give them psychological workouts and some physical testing too. It’s a great way to get to know someone.”

The players that hit the Nets practice floor were a diverse group that included a pair of NCAA Champions, a few league MVPs, some local talent and a little international flavor for good measure amongst others.

The first set of players on Wednesday featured NCAA Champion Darrell Arthur out of Kansas and Indiana’s Big Ten Player of the Year DJ White and included Washington State’s Derrick Low, North Carolina’s Wayne Ellington, UMass’s Gary Forbes and St. John’s Eugene Lawrence.

Arthur drew the most attention from press who attended the media availability, as many have speculated in mock drafts that the Nets might take the lithe 6-9, 215 pound power forward with the 10th pick.

Although Arthur was not impressed with his own performance, which marked his first workout for an NBA team, Vandeweghe felt that Arthur was as good or better than advertised.

“I think Arthur is very athletic kid. He competed exceptionally well today,” Vandeweghe said. “He is a good shooter, and you know you’re going to see if he is a 3 or 4 in the league and I think that will determine where he goes in the draft.”

The story of the second day of workouts was size, as seven-footers JaVale McGee out of Nevada and Robin Lopez from Stanford went head-to-head in drills. Both known for their defensive prowess, Vandeweghe took note of how much help another shot-blocker would be for a Nets team that finished 16th in blocks last season.

“They both averaged about three blocks a game or so and both of them are going to get bigger and stronger. I think what you need when you’re talking about an NBA shot-blocker is that you’re going to need toughness, strength and some jumping ability,” Vandeweghe said. “I think both of those guys have jumping ability, I think they’ll both compete and are both tough and within two or three years will gather the strength they need to be shot blockers in the NBA.”

Local product Manny Ubilla out of Fairleigh Dickinson, Marcelus Kemp out of Nevada, Sonny Weems from Arkansas and St. John’s Lawrence rounded out the day’s group.

The workouts on Friday were even more intense than they had been earlier in the week, as the Nets put players through drills that were specifically designed to test the players’ competitiveness and desire to win.

“Today we did a lot of one-on-one competitive type things where a guy has to play defense on all five guys and see how many stops he can get. So it was very aggressive and very competitive today.”

On Friday Chase Budinger from Arizona and Brandon Rush from the NCAA Champion Kansas Jayhawks matched up on the wings, with Marreese Speight of Florida and Joey Dorsey of Memphis banging down low and Lester Hudaon from Tennessee-Martin and Jeremy Pargo from Gonzaga going head to head at the point position.

The Nets rounded out the week on Saturday with another set of blue chippers, as SEC Player-of-the-Year Shan Foster out of Vanderbilt, Conference USA Player-of-Year Chris Douglas-Roberts, California’s DeVon Hardin, Kyle Weaver of Washington State, local product Brian Laing from Seton Hall and French seven-footer Alexis Ajinca hit the gym for the final workout of the week.

The Nets will be back at it this week as they plan to look at another group of players as they inch closer and closer to making their selection for the 2008 NBA Draft.

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