CHICAGO – As their senior seasons began, Caris LeVert was viewed as a likely lottery pick as long as he got through Michigan’s schedule without further injury issues; Denzel Valentine was considered a likely second-round pick.
By the time the calendar was ready to turn to 2016, it was a coin flip which would go first in the NBA draft as Valentine’s play in Michigan State’s non-conference schedule elevated him to Player of the Year discussion.
Then LeVert suffered what appeared an innocent rolled ankle late in a road win at Illinois to open Big Ten play on a day he showed exactly what about him appealed to the NBA in a 22-point, 10-assist outing. It turned out to be a Jones fracture, a broken bone in his fifth metatarsal, the same injury that essentially cost Jodie Meeks the 2015-16 season for the Pistons and sidelined Kevin Durant before that.
On top of LeVert’s previous foot injuries that cost him the second half of his junior season, there is now a significant health question hovering over him. He attended last week’s NBA draft combine on crutches and in a walking boot after undergoing surgery, performed by the same New York-based surgeon, Dr. Martin O’Malley, who operated on both Meeks and Durant along with a host of other athletes in many sports.
He won’t be able to work out for teams before the draft and likely won’t participate in Summer League. If the injury heals as expected, though, LeVert should be ready to go for training camp. There’s not much he can do to allay fears that lower-leg problems won’t become a chronic issue, but he’s confident teams comfortable he’s not at elevated risk for further injury have seen enough to warrant spending a first-round pick on him.
“I was in college for four years, so I think my game speaks for itself, as well as the interviews here this week,” he said. “I’m still very valuable. Obviously, the injuries are a risk but I can’t really control that right now.”
Somebody might be willing to spend a late first-round pick on him, even though LeVert’s updated ranking in DraftExpress.com is 46th – just three picks ahead of where the Pistons will choose in the second round.
It’s conceivable that the 6-foot-6 Valentine – ranked 12th, his highest yet, in Draft Express’ updated evaluation coming out of the combine – won’t be available to the Pistons in the first round but that LeVert, 6-foot-7, might be there for them in the second. Both were among the 20 players the Pistons interviewed at the combine, which at least indicates their interest in getting to know more about each player.
In either case, the Pistons would be getting a ready-to-play, versatile player who would satisfy Stan Van Gundy’s objective of adding playmakers to a perimeter core that includes Reggie Jackson, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Stanley Johnson. The Pistons also have three other players under contract for next season whose best position is shooting guard in Jodie Meeks, Reggie Bullock and Darrun Hilliard.
Valentine grew up a Pistons fan in Lansing and played at Sexton High for his dad, Carlton, recruited to Michigan State by an anonymous young assistant named Tom Izzo in 1984 after playing for the legendary Morgan Wooten at DeMatha Catholic in Washington, D.C.
“I met with the Pistons. It would be nice to play there,” Valentine said. “It’s an hour away from my home. My brother” – Drew Valentine, who played at Oakland University and now is an assistant to Greg Kampe – “is right there. I’ve been watching the Pistons all my life, so it would be cool playing for the Pistons.”
Despite the roster logjam at shooting guard, the Pistons could draft either player with an eye toward the future beyond 2016-17 when both Meeks and Bullock are set to become free agents. The other factor that would make it more appealing to add another wing player is the positional versatility both players provide.
LeVert is athletic enough to guard all three perimeter spots while Valentine’s shooting and vision would make him an easy fit offensively. His challenge to avoid being limited to shooting guard will be if he can stay in front of point guards or hold his own against bigger small forwards defensively.
“That’s one thing I bring to the table is versatility,” Valentine said. “The way the game’s going right now, you need guys like that. If you want me to play one, two or three or guard one, two or three, I feel I have the capability to do that. I feel like that’s the mode of the game right now.”
“I’ve heard that I’m a combo guard this week,” LeVert said. “They said point guard, shooting guard, small forward – all three of those things. I’m good at passing, dribbling, shooting. Those skills translate to the next level at the one, the two and the three.”
LeVert said he heard his draft range is “from 18” – the Pistons’ first-round pick – “to like 45. It’s probably the widest draft range ever, but that’s what it is.”
It might be a stretch to see the Pistons, stung by the loss of Meeks last season, rolling the dice at 18 on a player coming off the same injury. But if LeVert were to fall to 49 – and, to a significant extent, that will be determined by the feedback NBA general managers get from medical staffs that will pore over the X-rays, CAT scans and MRI results LeVert said he would undergo – it might be equally hard seeing them bypass him. Given their depth chart, if they were to draft Valentine at 18 – assuming he’s still on the board – it would surely say they see him as a slam-dunk NBA contributor.
He sees himself that way, encouraged by the success of another Spartan who came to the NBA five years ago with questions about what position he could play. In part because of Draymond Green’s success, the NBA is more inclined today to bring on board good basketball players and figure out the fit as their game evolves.
“I thank him every day,” Valentine said. “He’s doing his thing and he’s definitely putting on and making it easier for me. He says all the time, ‘I paved the way.’ He was picked 35 and had to do it the hard way and he’s paving the way for guys like me and other people that fit my mold.”