Member Center

Sports - Kentucky

Are Bledsoe And Orton Slipping Before The Draft?

Posted: Jun 9, 2010 1:16 PM by Alan Cutler
Updated: Jun 9, 2010 1:16 PM

Bookmark and Share
Rating:

5.0 (1 vote)

Hoopsworld.com reports that two former Kentucky Wildcats are expected to be drafted in the top 5 picks of the NBA Draft, while another pair of Cats may be sliding down first round draft boards.

Kentucky's John Wall is still expected to be the overall No. 1 pick and DeMarcus Cousins is expected to end up being somewhere in the following four picks.

Hoopsworld talks to a lot of NBA executives as they formulate their opinions on how the best college players are looking, as they work out for many teams jockeying for position for the upcoming NBA draft.

Part of the process is playing poker. There are times a team will really like a player and talk bad about him because they don't want other teams to know that they like them.

Taking that into account, there are two Kentucky players who they believe are dropping when it comes to their value before the June 24th draft.

According to Hoopsworld, Daniel Orton and Eric Bledsoe are struggling.

Here are some excerpts about Orton and Bledsoe:

Daniel Orton C - 6'10"- 260

"Scouts want to like Daniel Orton, but after a small handful of workouts the early returns on Orton are not good. Size matters in the NBA, but teams seem to be underwhelmed by Orton's athletic game and apparently he has not faired well against his peers in workouts. A lot has been made about Orton's knee injuries in high school, which did not get red-flagged in Chicago at the Pre-Draft Combine medical review, but observes feel he is a step too slow and lacks power. It is still very likely that Orton goes in the first round, but its beginning to look like he'll be a teens to mid-twenties pick, where several weeks ago he was viewed as a borderline lottery pick."

Eric Bledsoe - PG - 6'1"- 190

"Bledsoe is proving to be what he appeared at the beginning of the process: a longer term project. Bledsoe has amazing talent, and more than a few teams commented on how impressive he is athletically, but the big knocks on him coming in - judgment, experience and defense - are showing true in workouts. One Eastern Conference scout said he is very much like Atlanta's Jeff Teague - raw around the edges, amazingly gifted athletically, but easily two years away from contributing at a significant level. If most teams see Bledsoe this way he could see his stock drop to the mid to late twenties as more proven polished players start to settle in, in the late teens."

If Orton ends up being a late first rounder, it's a drop from what the conversation was a few weeks ago, but it's still remarkable for a player who didn't start, and was coming off a serious knee injury in high school.

Topics: Eric Bledsoe, Daniel Orton, NBA, Kentucky Basketball

Comments

Most Popular

LEX18 Promotions and Giveaways