With the 2015 NBA Draft only six days away the news and rumour mill surrounding Thursday’s big day is hitting fever pitch. Here’s the latest buzz to get you caught up:
Nets dangling Plumlee to try to move up in draft
The Skinny: The Brooklyn Nets are shopping forward Mason Plumlee with the intent of moving up in the draft, according to Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News.
Analysis: Thanks to the Joe Johnson trade back in 2012, the Nets’ pick, which would’ve been 15th overall, has been swapped with the Atlanta Hawks, forcing Brooklyn to select 29th overall – certainly not an ideal situation when a team is looking to begin a rebuild.
Trying to trade up in the draft makes a lot of sense and doing so with Plumlee – one of the game’s better young big men still on their rookie contract – has the potential to fetch them very good value and, perhaps, even get them into the lottery where they’re going to have to be picking if they want to begin building for the future.
Kristaps Porzingis has rocketed up and could go at Nos. 2 or 3
The Skinny: Seven-foot-one Latvian power forward Kristaps Porzingis is shooting up draft boards with word that the Philadelphia 76ers at No. 3 and the Los Angeles Lakers at No. 2 are interested in taking him, according to ESPN’s Marc Stein and Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports.
Analysis: Word of this should come as little surprise as Porzingis’ combination of incredible size, athleticism and shooting ability blew away scouts and GMs at his pre-draft workout last Friday. As a result, Porzingis has moved to No. 3 on a lot of notable mock drafts and big boards, including the latest mock from Sportsnet’s Dave Zarum.
Lakers not considering Kobe with draft choice
The Skinny: The Los Angeles Lakers are not taking into consideration whether a player would be a good fit with Kobe Bryant as part of their draft strategy, Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News is reporting.
Analysis: At age 36 and under contract with the Lakers only until the end of next season, the end of Bryant’s extraordinary career is in sight. Basing their No. 2 overall selection on how Bryant feels about the player doesn’t make a lot of sense.
Whether Bryant admits to it or not, the Lakers are firmly in a re-building situation and a second-overall pick is a key building block for them, so no matter how much he’s done for the organization, his input shouldn’t be weighed as heavily as those of the team’s future.
