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The Minnesota Timberwolves hosted six prospects on Tuesday at Target Center leading up to Thursday’s 2012 NBA Draft, a group that included two athletes they’ve already had a chance to evaluate.
Duke center Miles Plumlee returned after working out during a league-wide draft session at the LifeTime Fitness Training Center earlier this month, and Wichita State center Garrett Stutz—who worked out for the Wolves on Monday—also returned for a second look. The two were joined by Xavier guard Tu Holloway, Villanova guard Maalik Wayns, Xavier center Kenny Frease and French center Negueba Samake.
Coach Rick Adelman was on hand for the workouts, as were the rest of his assistant coaching staff.
For Plumlee, a 6-foot-10, 245-pound center who finished his senior year at Duke with 6.6 points and 7.1 rebounds per game, the chance to again work out for Minnesota was a way to get a little more acquainted with the franchise. He said he studies how forward Kevin Love plays and would welcome the opportunity to play alongside him.
He said he knows he wasn’t projected to be selected highly in the upcoming draft and thought he’s improved his position through his team workouts.
“I’m not too nervous—going into this I knew where my stock was at, and I feel like I’ve done a great job of improving on it,” Plumlee said.
Holloway, a 6-foot-0 guard, played four years for Xavier and finished with three season scoring in double figures—his best year was his junior season, when he scored 19.7 points per game and chipped in 5.0 rebounds and 5.4 assists. He was the Atlantic-10 Conference Player of the Year that season. As a senior, he finished with 17.5 points, 3.6 rebounds and 4.9 assists per game.
Wayns played three collegiate seasons and progressively increased his minutes, points and assists and rebounds per game. He finished the 2011-12 season with 17.6 points, 4.6 assists and 3.8 rebounds per game while earning a spot on the All-Big East Second Team.
During Frease’s four years at Xavier, the 7-foot-0, 275-pound center helped his school win 100 games and reach three Sweet 16s. In his final two seasons he averaged double-digit points—11.7 as a junior and 10.2 as a senior—and over the course of his career he shot 51.4 percent from the floor. His 130 blocked shots rank fourth in Xavier history.
Stutz is a 7-foot-0 center who earned All-Missouri Valley Conference First Team honors as a senior. Finished with 13.2 points per game and led the team in rebounds (8.9) and blocked shots (1.0) in his final collegiate season.
No statistics for Samake were available.
Plumlee, the only prospect who spoke to the media on Tuesday, said getting the chance to come back to Minnesota was enjoyable because of the type of team the franchise is building.
“They’re a great program,” he said. “They have a lot of up and coming players. I love the coaching staff, getting to know them, and I think this is somewhere I could really blossom as a player.”