[Bryan88]

Westbrook would be a good selection if he lasts that long. On the other hand I think Brook Lopez might slip a bit, and if that is the case the Bobcats shouldn't hesitate on grabbing Lopez.


Charlotte Observer | 06/20/2008 | UCLA star impressive, but is he available to Bobcats?

When your team has an NBA lottery pick, it's easy to dream.

Your coach will draft a guy who will be the difference next season, who will take a team like the Charlotte Bobcats that has never been to the playoffs and put it there.

After all, Charlotte picks ninth in the June26 draft. On Thursday, coach Larry Brown and other team officials were again sorting through the available talent, a group of six that included fast-rising point guard Russell Westbrook of UCLA.

But even Westbrook, who likely won't fall to the Bobcats (a check of four mock drafts had him taken at Nos.6, 7, 7 and 11) would not be an immediate answer.

“All these kids that are coming into the NBA at this stage of their careers are looking at being backups,” Brown said. “Unless they're going to go to a terrible team, it's generally understood that the first or second player in the draft might start.”

And that's it. It's also something Westbrook understands.

“You're not going to come in and just be given playing time,” he said, still sweating from the intense workout. “You've got to come in and work for it and try to get on the floor as much as possible.”

Brown, though, wasn't saying whoever Charlotte drafts won't start eventually.

“I haven't seen anybody that we've had in here that I'd say was going to be a starter right now,” he said. “But if you're drafting ninth, I would hope somewhere down the road they're going to be a starter and a major contributor.

“And I think I've seen a lot of those kids so far. We've had 15 or 20 go through here that I think have a chance to be a starter in the NBA, but maybe not right off the bat.”

Brown did sound impressed by Westbrook, who left school after his sophomore season.

“He's a young kid who just gets better and better,” Brown said. “He is real athletic and explosive. … You've got to look and see if a kid has the capacity to learn and is going to get better, and I think certainly he has a big upside.”

Besides Westbrook, of the six players who tried out Thursday only 7-foot center Kosta Koufos of Ohio State is a consensus projected first-rounder, somewhere in the middle of that group despite just one year of college.

“He's long, he can shoot the ball, he's coachable, he's real young,” Brown said. “Obviously he's been well-coached. But he's got a lot of skills. With big people able to step out on the perimeter, it opens the game up, and he has that ability.”

[Bryan88]

Apparently Westbrook has a promise to go in the top 10. I personally think that the promise came from the Clippers at 7, but it could have possibly been from the Bobcats at 9. Who do you think made the promise?