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**Coatesvillain** · 06-04-2004, 07:58 PM

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Four players arrived at the Sixers practice facility for the first day of pre-draft workouts. With Sixers Head Coach Jim O'Brien, President and General Manager Billy King, and Senior Vice President and Assistant General Manager Tony DiLeo among others looking on, prospective draftees, Anthony Frazier, David Hawkins, Damir Omerhodzic, and J.R. Smith conducted their workout.

Frazier, a 6-foot-9 forward from Division II Cheyney University and a Philadelphia native, only began his basketball career four years ago. He was just appreciative for the opportunity to workout for the Sixers.

"I really didn't play ball in high school. So, four years of basketball under the whistle, I feel I have accomplished something,” Frazier lamented. “That's everyone's dream coming up. Everyone wants to be in the NBA. So, just to be out here practicing for Jim O'Brien, I feel excellent, I feel good."

Ranked fourth nationally with a 24.4 scoring average his senior year, Temple guard David Hawkins, focused on this great opportunity to move on in his career.

“I am a competitor and that's going to take me a long way,” Hawkins said after the hour workout. “Somebody with a basketball man like Coach (John) Chaney, a Hall of Famer, just for him to think that of you, you can't ask for anything more. Even if I don't play, as long as I got the opportunity. If I don't make it, I wasn't good enough. God gave me all this talent, and I'm trying to do as much as I can with it."

LINK

No real information at all, I'll try to search and see what I can find tonight, hopefully they mention news about it in the newspapers tomorrow. It's only right, they can't just go and give us no idea about this, can they?

David Hawkins either did something good in this day of workouts, or he was simply an accessible local body with no place else to go, because he'll take part in the Monday Practice with Josh Childress, Jameer Nelson, and Ben Gordon.

**Coatesvillain** · 06-05-2004, 01:14 AM

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Over the next few weeks, a quartet of prospective draftees will make their way to the 76ers practice facility to undergo one-on-one physical as well psychological workouts. The Sixers basketball operations department will use what they learn from these exercises to form their final player ranking for Draft night.

76ers Senior Vice President and Assistant General Manager Tony DiLeo has seen his fair share of workouts in his 15 years with the Sixers.

“We rank the players in the draft, and then we look at the players we like and who we think will be around at our pick,” DiLeo explained. “We try to match up positions and sizes so that we have a good workout. We are only allowed to have four players in at one time, so we try to match up position and players.”

After being brought in at the team’s expense the night before, players usually arrive about 8:30 a.m. to prepare for the workout. They are given practice gear and are afforded the opportunity to get taped and treated. By 10 a.m. they are on the practice floor ready to go. One interesting note for those who have declared early entry for the draft: if they have not hired an agent and withdraw from the draft thereby returning to school, they must reimburse the teams their expenses or risk losing their eligibility.

The players get measured for height, wingspan, weight, body fat, and vertical leap. Plus, they are timed doing various running activities before they are ready to start the workout with the coaches.

“We scout these players all season so we always have questions about certain players,’ DiLeo explained. “In the workouts, we try to examine those different areas that we have questions about. So if someone we think has bad hands, then we will try to do some drills to either confirm or contradict our suspicions.”

The players do a lot of individual drills as well as some competitive one-on-one and two-on-two work under the guidance of Head Coach Jim O’Brien.

LINK

A good article, that gives info on how the Sixers handle their workouts.

**Coatesvillain** · 06-05-2004, 01:24 AM

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Sixers assistant general manager Tony DiLeo said he thought Frazier had promise, and didn't rule out bringing him back to participate with the Sixers' summer-league team.

"I think he has the will to become good," DiLeo said. "We see how much he developed in [a short] time, so it looks like he'll develop more. So I think that's a positive sign, that he's this good not having that experience from high school."

Sixers coach Jim O'Brien said he felt Frazier was "an instinctive scorer" who did some good things in one-on-one situations. But he conceded that he was looking more at Hawkins, the nation's No. 4 scorer in Division I last season, and 6-6 guard J.R. Smith, 18, of St. Benedict Prep in Newark, N.J.

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Besides Frazier, Hawkins and Smith, the fourth player to work out with the Sixers was 6-10 Damir Omerhodzic of Croatia, another 18-year-old. But Omerhodzic had banged up his right knee and left ankle in workouts, and was unable to do much on the court.

O'Brien was impressed with Hawkins, whom he called an NBA-caliber player because he can create his own shot and is strong. But he seemed surprised by Smith, a muscular 225-pounder who averaged 24 points in his senior year at St. Benedict's Prep.

"A lot of high school players, and young men that come out early on in their college career, do not have the type of body that he has right now," O'Brien said. "So I was very impressed with his body and with his strength and with his explosiveness."

LINK (reg. req.)

Not much information on the players we want to hear about. This article is mostly hype surrounding Anthony Frazier because he's a local product. I highly doubt we were looking into drafting Omerhodzic, but it's sorta dissapointing that he suffered an injury, that most likely prevented the team from running the two on two drills.

From the sounds of it, David Hawkins will be a rookie free agent signing by the Sixers. Outside of that, I don't think I could envision a reason for Hawkins to be invited to Monday's workout as well. Personally, I think he has an NBDL, CBA, USBL level game, so hopefully they don't put enough on this guy where he makes the team. He's a scorer, who's a high volume shooter, with little to no handle.

The comments on JR Smith, are curious, everyone else they gave some insight on the workout, and all O'Brien commented on was his body, strength and explosiveness. I don't want to jump the gun, but was it another bad workout, or did they see something positive that they want to play down? Interesting stuff.

**Coatesvillain** · 06-05-2004, 01:33 AM

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Temple's David Hawkins and Cheyney (Pa.) University's Anthony Frazier were the others who worked out for the Sixers, who own the No. 9 pick in the June 24 draft.

Unlike the 6-foot-6, 228-pound Smith, who is projected to go anywhere from No. 17 to No. 26 in most mock drafts, and the 6-10 Omerhodzic, who may go in the second round, Hawkins and Frazier aren't even expected to be drafted.

The 6-5, 230-pound Hawkins had a solid four-year career at Temple, averaging 24.4 points and 2.7 steals last season. He shot just 40.7 percent from the field for his career, though, and was just 30.6 percent from 3-point range.

"Nobody is projecting me to go anywhere," Hawkins said. "You hear things, but that's just hearsay. Every coach I talk to from the workouts I've been to just basically said they could see me play in this league for many years, so. If you play basketball, your dream is to play in this league."

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"When you have a guy that's a prolific shooter like he is, you have to have that ability when they take that shot away, to explode by people and be strong enough when you get inside to take some hits," O'Brien said. "I think he's going to be able to do that."

Smith, one of 13 high school players who entered this year's draft, surely will be around when the Sixers make their pick, but it's unlikely they would use the ninth pick on him. However, it's possible they could trade down to get Smith.

A solid shooter and scorer, Smith shot 54.1 percent from the field in his senior season and scored 30 or more points seven times. He averaged 23.9 points and five steals in his final season, setting school single-season records for points (700) and 3-pointers (108).

"I definitely think I can play (in the NBA)" Smith said. "If it was about the money, I'd go to college and be a doctor or something like that. Playing with the best guys in the world, living up to the hype that LeBron (James), Carmelo (Anthony) and (Michael) Jordan, all those guys. It can't be better than that. Especially when you love playing, especially when you're getting paid for it, too."

LINK

Sometimes people make comments, that I can't help but criticize. JR, "If it was about the money, I'd go to college and be a doctor or something like that"??! You get paid more for being a first round draft pick than that. What is he talking about?

Looks like I was wrong with my assumption, O'Brien did make more comments on JR Smith, but not exactly on his workout.

**Coatesvillain** · 06-05-2004, 01:40 AM

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PHILADELPHIA | With ice packs taped to both his right knee and his left ankle, Damir Omerholdzic hobbled toward the table serving as an impromptu media podium Friday morning looking more like a battered veteran than the teenage international prospect he really is.

The 18-year-old Croatian, part of the opening act of the 76ers' version of ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'' came to Philadelphia with the sprained ankle, the result of an earlier workout in Seattle where he also took a shot in the mouth. The icing on the knee was said to be routine.

Restricted by the ankle injury, the 6-10 Omerholdzic couldn't come close to showing new coach Jim O'Brien and the rest of the Sixers' draft gurus why the team should consider selecting him with the ninth pick in the upcoming draft.

''I just tried to show them what I can do, and that's it,'' said Omerholdzic, who's game has been compared to Toni Kukoc.

''He was busted up before he got here, and I knew I wasn't going to get a real chance to evaluate him,'' O'Brien said. ''It's very frustrating , but I'm sure it's equally frustrating to them. You have a specific agenda of things you want to see, and if they can't perform them it makes evaluation much more difficult.''

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The invitation list for Monday, the next workout, will generate a little more attention. Three potential lottery picks — St. Joseph's guard Jameer Nelson, Connecticut junior Ben Gordon, and Stanford junior Josh Childress — will visit along with Hawkins, who was invited back partly to even out the workout numbers but also because he impressed O'Brien at Friday's session — and because he asked for the opportunity to go against the others.

''He wants to work against potential lottery picks; he wants to be seen against the best,'' O'Brien said of the 6-5, 230-pound Hawkins, the fourth-highest scorer in the country last season (24.4 points a game) and the third-highest scorer in Temple history.

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With Smith, O'Brien focused on his shooting release, which has reportedly been a concern in other workouts.

''If you're a great shooter and you have too slow of a release, you're not going to get many shots off at this level,'' said O'Brien, who was very impressed with the physical presence of the 228-pound Smith, who averaged 23.9 points for St. Benedict's last season.

LINK

Allen Iverson · 06-05-2004, 12:36 PM

I don't want JR Smith, can't have a slow release in the NBA. I don't know why they are looking at Gordon, he is like AI Jr.

dcrono3 · 06-07-2004, 05:50 AM

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Originally posted by <b>PhillyPhanatic</b>!

LINK

Sometimes people make comments, that I can't help but criticize. JR, "If it was about the money, I'd go to college and be a doctor or something like that"??! You get paid more for being a first round draft pick than that. What is he talking about?

Looks like I was wrong with my assumption, O'Brien did make more comments on JR Smith, but not exactly on his workout.

I'm not quite sure about that. A successful doctor makes more than the average NBA player, but not the best players in teh league. Another thing to consider is that doctors have WAY longer careers than NBa players, so in the long run it probably is more profitable to be a doctor. However, Smith's comments seem a bit strange to me. A good doctor is REALLY smart, and med school isn't easy. Has Smith shown the brains to be a potential doctor>? Seems like he is pretty confident about his abilities.

**Coatesvillain** · 06-07-2004, 10:28 PM

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Nelson worked out Monday along with David Hawkins (Temple), Josh Childress (Stanford) and Ben Gordon (Connecticut).

The Sixers are coming off a disappointing 33-49 finish, missing the playoffs for the first time since the 1997-98 season. They have a plethora of guards and need help at the power forward and center positions.

O'Brien said the Sixers also like to add a 3-point shooter.

Nelson impressed O'Brien at the workout, but not enough to change his mind.

"If I had to draft right now, I'd stick with what I said two weeks ago. I think he's going to have a great career, but I just don't know with the number of point guards that we have if he's best suited for the Sixers," he said.

Team president Billy King has considered trading the pick, but only if he could move up.

"Right now, we like what we see there," King said. "We're confident we can get a good player at nine."

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It could be Childress, a 6-foot-8, 205-pound forward who left Stanford a year early. He was the Pac-10 player of the year and an All-American last season.

"I was surprised how easily Childress shot the NBA 3," O'Brien said.

Childress is gearing up to hear his name called as a lottery pick. He was mum on the prospect of being drafted by Golden State and reunited with his college coach, Mike Montgomery.

"I'd love to come to Philly," he said, smiling and wearing a 76ers practice jersey.

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... King said the Sixers would likely work out Devin Harris (Wisconsin) and Shaun Livingston (Peoria Central HS, Ill.) at the NBA pre-draft camp in Chicago.

LINK

**Coatesvillain** · 06-08-2004, 03:09 AM

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Billy King, the Sixers' general manager and president, said that whether the Sixers decide to select Nelson or not "he's got a lot of tools that will make him successful in this league, and I think Jim realizes that, but I think he was speaking (as) if he was picking his vision of the team."

King, who doesn't see the Sixers moving down in the draft, was on his way to Chicago for the NBA predraft camp at Moody Bible Institute, today through Friday. The Sixers plan to work out Wisconsin's Devin Harris, Illinois prep star Shaun Livingston and Brigham Young University center Rafael Araujo in Chicago.

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"I thought all four guys were very impressive," O'Brien said. "Tony DiLeo (team assistant general manager and senior vice president) was saying it was one of the most competitive workouts he's seen in his 14 years of doing this."

Said King: "I told Jim, that's the most jump shots I've seen made in this gym in a long time."

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O'Brien said he felt very strongly about Gordon and Childress after their workouts. He likes Childress' ability to shoot the 3-pointer; he said Gordon can just "flat-out play" and that Nelson and Gordon are probably two of the most mentally tough players in the draft.

Gordon was part of Connecticut's 2004 NCAA championship team and was a teammate of forward Emeka Okafor, who could be the No. 1 overall pick taken by Orlando in the draft. Gordon averaged a team-high 18.5 points and 4.7 assist for the Huskies last season, shooting 43.4 percent from the field (43.3 percent from 3-point range).

"It's (playing at Connecticut) prepared me a lot,' Gordon said. "Playing under a coach like Jim Calhoun, and just my three years of experience, I think, is going to make me well-prepared for the next level.'

Childress, the Pac-10 Player of the Year in 2003-04, averaged 15.7 points and 7.5 rebounds for Stanford last season, shooting 39.5 percent from 3-point range

What can you add to Sixers?

"I think I can add a good all-around player,' he said. "Someone who doesn't mind doing the dirty work, (I) will go in there and rebound, defend and block shots and score.'

Said O'Brien: "I feel we'll get a very talented player at No. 9. Whether that will be a high school (player), international player, a guy that's been four years (to college), or two years, or whatever, we'll have to wait and see and weigh that out."

LINK

**Coatesvillain** · 06-08-2004, 03:16 AM

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Nelson wasn't among those overreacting to O'Brien's honest evaluation, realizing that perhaps Allen Iverson is slated for more time at the point under O'Brien, and that the Sixers have a clear need for size. But the lifelong Sixers fan showed up at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, admittedly with what he described as "a little chip on - to play harder and prove [Sixers] people wrong."

Hawkins, a Nelson friend and fellow Atlantic 10 warrior, noticed.

"He got after it," Hawkins said. "I think he raised the level of the workout for all of us."

Gordon and Childress both agreed, saying their two-on-two and one-on-one matchups were the most intense they've experienced on their tours. It was no coincidence that Gordon was invited on the same day as Nelson. Gordon is rated as the top combination guard in the draft, but is projected at the point. Gordon, an explosive scorer with range, seems to be among the nine players O'Brien might consider. O'Brien rated the Gordon-Nelson scrutiny "a wash."

"It was fun," Nelson said. "I got my chance. I feel as though I don't have to prove myself to anybody, but I just wanted to come here and show what I can do."

Nelson rated it among his best of his nine individual workouts so far.

LINK (reg. req.)

**Coatesvillain** · 06-08-2004, 10:28 AM

The way the media is handling these pre-draft workouts for the Sixers, is showing why I have a slight hatred for the Philly media. You have three players in the first workout, four in the second, and all we keep hearing about are the three Philly area players who worked out, and crumbs about the rest.

Jameer Nelson was a fantastic collegiate player, and will probably make a fine pro, but he's 1/4 of the workout. Why not more questions for Ben Gordon, or Josh Childress (despite the fact I don't want him at all)?

Instead they're trying to hard to make something out of O'Brien's comments, trying to find a vein of negativity to thrive on. Sometimes the negativity simply isn't there, and they have to learn that.

All we know from this workout, is that a lot of shots were made, it was really intense, Childress looked good from beyond the arch, Nelson performed well, and Hawkins learned something from his workout Friday. Maybe I'm taking this the wrong way, maybe the Sixers are spinning things this way, so that other teams have no idea what direction they're going in. I would like to think that, because it is a possibility, but I also believe that the Philly media simply won't ask the right questions.

Also, anyone else curious about the interest in Ben Gordon? I think it's a trade ploy, because I've heard he was measuring in at 6'1. Also, why would O'Brien say in one breath that the team has too many guards, but in the next infer that the Sixers are interested in Gordon. There's something there.

Anyone else find it funny that Billy King tries to cover up O'Brien's honesty, and acting like he's not representing the thoughts of the Sixers.

(-) 0 † § I-I () † · 06-08-2004, 05:48 PM

Well we have a decent spot. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasnt Amare Stoudemire taken at 9 a couple years back?

I think we should stay away from Livingston. Although he looks like he could turn out to be quite the player, drafting him would mean AI is probably staying at the 2 guard spot, something I do not want.

I like JR Smith but thats because I saw him play local to me (Lakewood, NJ) for 2 years. He is insanely atheltic, and I think could turn into quite the player.

But for as many freakishly athletic players that did develop into stars, I can there are a handful that didnt.

All I can say is that I hope we dont go foriegn, I feel like even if we pick a bust from America, I will have had high hopes, but if we go foriegn, I just cant get that excited, until I see production.

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