Among those such as Jeremy Lin vying for an NBA point guard spot is Tulsa’s Ben Uzoh. Chad Ford of ESPN recently got to see him play during training sessions in LA. Uzoh also made an appearance at the Portsmouth Invitational, but had the misfortune of being on the same team as Mikhail Torrance, who basically stole the show.

I have seen Uzoh play a few times this past season, including at Portsmouth, but I’ll save my scouting report for later. Suffice it to say for now, the bottom line is, I do not think as highly of Uzoh as Ford does. Here’s Ford’s take on him…

I know Uzoh isn’t getting a lot of love right now. Of all the top guys I saw Monday, he was the only one not invited to the Chicago pre-draft camp. But I think he has a chance to be a solid role player in the NBA. He was very good in the workout, showing elite athleticism, shooting the lights out and fighting hard on defense. His handle and decision making need some work, but he’s another guy who could provide a scoring boost off the bench.

Read more from Chad Ford (ESPN Insder subscription required): NBA draft 2010: Damion James, Jordan Crawford, Luke Harangody workout analysis – ESPN

Chad Ford is following the NBA predraft training circuit and has filed a rather surprising report on former Texas freshman Avery Bradley. My observations this past season led me to believe he was an undersized shooting guard, but now I wouldn’t be surprised if NBA executives have him targeted as a point guard.

That means another point guard pick has been taken, because Bradley’s a shoo-in in this Draft. Therefore, it’s one less reason for Jeremy Lin to get drafted (which isn’t necessarily the same thing as to get a spot on an NBA roster).

Here’s an excerpt from Ford’s article on Bradley…

I’m still not sure if he’s a pure point guard, and that’s a serious drawback. But everything else looks pretty good. He’s super-quick and can change speeds on a dime. He showed an excellent jumper, with NBA 3-point range. He displayed the ability to score from just about everywhere on the floor. And when he got into it with the likes of Sherron Collins and Armon Johnson, his stifling defense gave them lots of problems.

I thought during the NCAA season, Bradley did show some nice defensive skills compared to the average college defender, which might not be saying much, but him being skinny and all, and his really sweet midrange jumper, I just didn’t see the D translating to the next level.

But if Ford is saying he’s shutting down Collins and Johnson, then maybe Bradley’s an NBA point guard from the defensive angle, then NBA execs are drooling. They’re thinking, “We’ll figure out how to fit him into the offensive scheme — at point.”

Back to his jumper. It’s the one comparison I can make to an NBA superstar: Michael Jordan. I’ve tweeted before about Bradley that he’s like Mike in that regard, but only in that regard. He squares up, he jumps high, his elbow is straight, and the ball is always in the middle of his springboard form.

Ford’s eyewitness account of stifling Collins and, to a degree Johnson (because I don’t think Johnson is that hard to contain, sorry) gives me food for thought that Bradley is worth a first-round pick.

Read more (ESPN Insider subscription required): NBA draft 2010: Avery Bradley, Lance Stephenson shine at Las Vegas workouts – ESPN

(Better late than never.) Mock drafts sites seem as contradictory as when Google closes 3% lower despite reporting record earnings. I guess I must be clueless, but I think based on his Portsmouth Invitational Tournament performance and the history of the tournament producing 2nd-round draft picks, Ryan Thompson should be a lock to get drafted. I even have him ranked higher than the ballyhooed Mikhail Torrance and Jerome Randle, a topic I will discuss in a future blogpost. As well, Thompson should be. After all, he was named MVP of the PIT.

While you can read a grossly summarized, yet glowing, recap of Thompson here…

http://comm.rider.edu/wordpress/2010/04/15/thompson-shows-off-skills-at-portsmouth-invitational/

…you’re better off capturing his moments in crunchtime with a list of all my live-tweets (@nbalivetweet on Twitter, if you’re curious) studying his game…
read more from "Portsmouth prospecting: Just draft Ryan Thompson already!"

Here’s a nice peek into an NBA rookie’s life. There’s a lot to learn about this business, and the Toronto Raptors’ DeMar DeRozan gives some good insights, including his reaction to comments from LeBron James that the Raptors didn’t want to make the playoffs (“that’s his opinion”), how he and a teammate once took a night drive 40 miles outside of Toronto just to explore, and rookie hazing (or lack thereof).

Especially as an historic NBA Draft approaches, I’ve become more and more amazed how these young players, often times barely legal as far as walking into a bar, are forced to make multi-million-dollar business decisions that even 35-year-olds working in the bustling high-tech Silicon Valley or the rigors of Wall Street like us, would have a hard time sorting out. Here’s an excerpt from DeRozan on that note, but the entire article is worth the read. There’s also another post by the New Jersey Nets’ Terrence Williams that precedes DeRozan’s post.

The tough stuff about the league is just realizing very quickly that you are expected to be grown. In college they make you run when you mess up. Here, they fine you! It’s your money. It’s really a business. No one is going to baby you and you have to be accountable for all of your actions. Being away from my family was tough when I was frustrated on the court. I wished they were there just to ease it up a bit, but I got through it. There was a period where I went through what y’all call the rookie wall. Nothing was going my way and that was tough for me. Chris Bosh really helped me out with that. He told me you can’t let your last game affect your next game. You have to learn how to brush it off and keeping going. He told me he went through the same thing. He really helped me out a lot with that.

 Read the whole article: http://rookiechronicles.com/2010/05/demar-derozan-blog-wrapping-up-my-rookie-year/ 

Jeremy Lin was not invited to the Portland Trailblazers’ recent workout, but in case you got the news second-hand (e.g., through another cut-up job by RealGM), that is actually good news for him and many other point guard draft prospects. In one fell swoop, and in recognition of the NCAA’s self-serving deadline of May 8, the Blazers did many people a favor by telling these invites that they ought to go back to college. Here were the key take-aways from the article by Joe Freeman of The Oregonian…

“The draft in general is quite strong, to be honest with you,” said Chad Buchanan, the Blazers’ director of college scouting. “I think there are a couple stars at the top and a lot of very good potential starters and rotation guys down to the early second round. It’s a deep draft.” 

I might even add that we could see the landscape of the NBA change with this draft. The 2010 NBA Draft is so deep with big men, that we should see a return to more traditional lineups with either two 4’s or a 4 and a 5 in the frontcourt, instead of situations like the post-devoid Golden State Warriors or Atlanta Hawks where you have 6′9″ Al Horford playing center in the 2nd round of the Eastern Conference playoffs.

I might add that the Draft is also well-stocked with athletic wings. So, the demand (and supply) with point guards and shooters is very low this year.

Here’s another take-away from the article…

Note: The underclassmen who worked out Friday were E’Twaun Moore of Purdue, Lavoy Allen of Temple, Talor Battle of Penn State, Malcolm Delaney of Virginia Tech, Eniel Polynice of Mississippi, Alex Tyus of Florida and Mike Davis of Illinois. Others working out were Dominic Waters of Portland State, Devan Downey of South Carolina, NBDL player Jeremy Wise, Donald Sloan of Texas A&M and Connecticut’s Gavin Edwards.

Here are my brief scouting reports on each of these players…

Moore — A tallish ballhandler who I really like, but he’s definitely one more year away. Really good passing skills. The return of Robbie Hummel to Purdue’s lineup next year will enhance Moore’s draft stock. He’s the only one in this group that really has a shot for making the NBA in 2011. Also, this is good news for Jeremy Lin fans, as one more pg has fallen off the radar, albeit probably ranked lower than Jeremy to begin with.

Allen, Tyus, Davis, Waters, Wise — Never heard of these guys. And believe me, I cast my net far and wide this season with respect to draftable point guards in competition with Jeremy. I hope to write more about these in the coming weeks before the Draft.

Battle — Too small for the NBA.

Delaney — A great scorer, but he’s being inserted at the 1 because of his 6-foot height. So, he’s a 2 trapped inside a 1’s body. He doesn’t have the right mentality or size to be an NBA 1. I don’t think it really matters if he returns to college. He could perhaps make decent money playing pro overseas.

Polynice — Spitting in the face of Terrico White ballyhooers, I will say that Polynice was, in my mind, Mississippi’s best player last season. He has nice NBA size for a big guard, but he really doesn’t have much skill beyond hustle. Another year in college to develop that skill will be helpful.

Downey — A terrific leader at the point-scorer position for South Carolina, unfortunately he’s too small for the NBA and he did not stand out at all at Portsmouth.

Sloan — A 2-guard, he showed he could score at Portsmouth, but didn’t do so with any flair or athletic prowess, i.e., he didn’t raise my eyebrows on a consistent basis.

Edwards — This UConn big man is just too slow for the NBA. He doesn’t bring anything of note to the table.

And finally, the best news thus far for Jeremy Lin fans, excerpted from the article…

Buchanan said he expects all seven underclassmen at Friday’s workout to return to school. 

Once again, thanks to the Blazers for saving a lot of heartache on the part of these players.

Read the whole article: Trail Blazers begin NBA draft workouts | OregonLive.com

In addition, the more highly-touted Jimmer Fredette of BYU also returned to school.