The Sixers are now the No. 5 seed in the East, Ben Simmons massive favorite to win Rookie of the Year
The Process certainly appears to be working. If
The Process certainly appears to be working. If
NEW YORK — When Robert Williams III learned on Wednesday that Michael Porter Jr. was likely done for the season with an impending back surgery, he messaged him on Instagram and wished him good luck.
“You can’t prevent injures but when I heard about the injury this morning at breakfast I DM’ed him on Instagram, like praying for a quick recovery,” Williams told me after putting up 21 points and 10 rebounds off the bench as No. 16 Texas A&M won the Legends Classic at Barclays Center with an impressive 98-87 win over a tough Penn State team.
“He’s a great player. I played him at Adidas nations and some at the [Nike] EYBL and we got a good chemistry. I was looking forward to playing against him. He’s great competition.”
The 6-10 Porter Jr. and the 6-10 Williams are the two players projected to go highest in the NBA Draft out of the SEC. In a rarity this season, no Kentucky player is among the top five or 10 projected picks.
ESPN had Porter Jr. at No. 2 entering Wednesday with Williams at No. 7. (Alabama’s Collin Sexton , who will be in New York later this week for the Barclays Classic, is the next-highest projected player from the SEC at No. 8.)
On the same day that Duke landed
Approximately 75 NBA personnel are expected on Tuesday for the Champions Classic at Chicago’s United Center, a source close to the event told ZAGSBLOG.
Duke, No. 1 in the AP Preseason Poll, faces No. 2 Michigan State at 7 p.m. ET, followed by No. 4 Kansas vs. No. 5 Kentucky.
The event features five of the Top 11 projected picks on the 2018 ESPN Mock Draft — No. 3 Marvin Bagley III (Duke), No. 6 Miles Bridges (Michigan) State), No. 9 Jaren Jackson (Michigan State), No. 10 Wendell Carter Jr. (Duke) and No. 11 Trevon Duval (Duke).
Other projected first-round picks in the event include No. 17 Hamidou Diallo (Kentucky), No. 22 Nick Richards (Kentucky) and No. 24 Grayson Allen (Duke).
Projected second-rounders include No. 33 Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk (Kansas) and No. 36 Devonte’ Graham (Kansas).
Because he hasn’t played in a national all-star game like the McDonald’s All-American Game or the Nike Hoop Summit, and because he hasn’t played for any USA Basketball national teams, Bagley III remains a relative unknown to a many NBA GMs and scouts.
Bagley is coming off a summer in which he averaged 25.8 points, a league-high 14.9 rebounds and 3.1 blocks per game for the Nike Phamily in the EYBL, but no NBA scouts were able to watch him at last summers Peach Jam, where he was named to the All-Peach Jam First Team.
“He hasn’t played at anything an NBA scout has ever been at,” one NBA scout told ZAGSBLOG. “There’s just AAU and Drew League film floating around so I think everyone is waiting to see how real the hype is.”
All 30 NBA teams were invited to Kentucky’s annual Pro Day on Sunday to watch the youngest team John Calipari has had in his nine seasons in Lexington.
This year’s Wildcats will have to replace 92.6 percent of their scoring and 76.6 percent of their rebounding from a year ago. Wenyen Gabriel, Sacha Killeya-Jones and Tai Wynyard are the only current players who played in games last season.
“It’s hard, young kids,” Calipari said on ESPNU. “I’m having fun with it, but it’s hard.”
There is no projected No. 1 pick — or even a Top-5 type pick — on the current Kentucky roster, but they do have multiple projected draft picks, as usual.
R.J. Barrett of Montverde (FL) Academy and
