Draft Night

As you know if you're a longtime reader, TigerBlog is not a huge fan of the NBA and NFL Drafts.

The hype that leads up to them coupled with the hit-or-miss results make them the most overhyped things in sports. Factor in the immediate grades that go along with them from sportswriters everywhere who swear up and down about this pick's being an A and that pick's being a D while offering opinions on players they have never seen play and probably hadn't heard of until a few weeks ago makes it even worse.

Usually the NFL Draft is the rougher of the two, since so many can't-miss high picks don't pan out and so many others who were picked lower become great players. You can't help but shake your head and wonder how people whose jobs depend on getting it right get it so wrong. 

Ah, but the 2005 NBA Draft might have been an all-timer.

Chris Paul is the leading career scorer out of that class, and he was taken with the fourth pick. You know who the second leading scorer out of that draft class was? 

Hint - He's one of the most fascinating players in league history.

Here's another hint - He's not one of the first six picks, who were these guys:

1. Andrew Bogut (decent pro)
2. Marvin Williams (average)
3. Deron Williams (eh)
4. Chris Paul (Hall of Famer)
5. Raymond Felton (Knicks' fans everywhere just cringed)
6. Martell Webster (below average)

Last hint - He was the 45th pick.

The 2023 NBA Draft is tonight, complete with a prospect — 7-4 Victor Wembanyama — about whom TB  saw this written: "His ceiling is as one of the 10 greatest players ever." That seems to be optimistic.

TB's main interest in this draft, like all Princeton fans, is in whether or not Tosan Evbuomwan is selected.

There aren't too many two-round mock drafts, as opposed to the floodgates of first-round mock drafts. The ones that TB has seen that do include a second round have had Tosan anywhere from the middle of the second to undrafted. 

Should Tosan reach the NBA, he'd become the second Princeton player to do so in the last few years, after Devin Cannady did so. Cannady has proven that he can score on that level, and who knows where he'd be were it not for the major ankle injury he suffered one game after a career-high 17 points for the Orlando Magic.

Cannady and Evbuomwan are not the same kind of player at all. Cannady's strength is long-range shooting, something for which he has pretty limitless range.

Evbuomwan has a much broader skillset. He can dribble, pass, create his own shot and defend. He can also shoot from the NBA three-point line, as he showed at the NBA Combine in Chicago this spring.

That, of course, followed a senior season in which Evbuomwan led the Tigers to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament, becoming a household name along the way. His story of coming from England, his late start in basketball and how Princeton associate head coach Brett McConnell recruited him was one of the most told during the tournament.

Drafted or not, Evbuomwan is at the start of a professional career that figures to last a long time. The best bet is that he ends up either selected in the second round or not but signed to a two-way NBA/G-League contract either way. After that, he'll have every chance to prove himself, just as Cannady did.

If the NBA doesn't work out, then he can play as long as he'd like in Europe. 

The second round will be more exciting than the first round tonight for Princeton fans. Maybe Tosan can go 45th, just like ...

... the great Lou Williams, who was taken right out of high school in 2005.

No player in NBA history has ever scored more points off the bench or played more games off the bench than Williams. His 15,593 points rank second behind only Paul from his draft class.

Williams announced his retirement last week. He played in 1,123 regular season games in his career, and he started only 122 of them.

Good luck to Tosan Evbuomwan tonight. And, regardless of tonight, during the pro career he's about to have.