USC’s power forward/center Nikola Vucevic opened eyes at the 2011 NBA Draft Combine and might have propelled himself into the first round in the upcoming NBA Draft.
He entered the Windy City as an unknown, but he measured out very well there and in a draft that’s short on both good players and big players, he could be a good big player. That possibility made him the hottest prospect to come out of that combine and propelled him into the first round in several mock NBA drafts. He might go mid-first round, even.
And one of the most interested NBA teams in Vucevic are the San Antonio Spurs who will be working him out tomorrow according to the latimes.com:
From Houston, Vucevic will head to San Antonio, where he’ll work out Friday with the Spurs, who have the 29th pick in the first round.
Not only are the Spurs going to work him out, it seems the team has been scouting him at several USC games:
The Spurs had scouts present at several of USC’s home games this season and are reportedly very interetsed in the 20-year-old Vucevic, as are Phildelphia, Charlotte, New York and New Jersey.
Here are his measurements from the draft combine:
He measured out a shade shorter than 7-feet at 6-11 3/4 in shoes — the tallest there; was the second heaviest present at 260 pounds but had just 6% body fat; had the second longest standing reach at 9-4 1/2 (a half-inch bigger than former No.1 overall pick Greg Oden); and, to boot, had the second-best wingspan at 7-4 1/2.
Last season he averaged 17.1 points, shot 50.5% from the field, 75.5% from the free throw line, 10.3 rebounds, 1.4 blocks in 34.9 minutes for the Trojans.
He sure seems to fit the Spurs need for a big man and all Spurs fans know how much Popovich likes foreign players so it may not be a surprise to hear Vucevic’s name be called when the Spurs are on the clock and he is available at pick 29 in the first round.
What do you think Spurs fans? Like what you see in Vucevic?