rangercal Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 (edited) Report: Durant's workout raises eyebrows at camp Kevin Durant wowed NBA teams in his one college season at Texas. At last week's pre-draft camp? Not so much, according to a confidential draft camp report obtained by The Seattle Times. According to the newspaper, the report said Durant was ranked 78th out of 80 NBA prospects who worked out at Orlando, while Ohio State center Greg Oden had an impressive workout. Oden and Durant have long been slated to go 1-2 in the NBA draft, and it's expected the Seattle SuperSonics will take Durant after the Portland Trail Blazers take Oden. According to the Times, Durant was the only prospect at camp who failed to bench press 185 pounds, and finished behind Oden in some key drills, including the vertical leap, agility drill and three-quarter court sprint. Oden jumped 34 inches in the vertical leap while Durant jumped 33½ inches, completed the agility drill in 11.67 seconds to Durant's 12.33 seconds, and finished the three-quarter court sprint in 3.27 seconds, ahead of Durant's 3.45 seconds, according to the report. Durant, however, had a 7-4¾ wingspan, which ranked second among all prospects and measured a half-inch wider than Oden's wingspan. But Durant's college coach said scouts should not question his strength just because he could not bench press 185 pounds. "If people question his strength, they're stupid," Texas' Rick Barnes said Tuesday, according to The Dallas Morning News. "If they are looking for weight lifters to come out of Texas, that's not what we're producing. There are a lot of guys who can bench press 300 pounds in the NBA who couldn't play dead in a cowboy movie. Kevin's the best player in the draft -- period, at any position." Edited June 6, 2007 by rangercal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RockRaines Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 Oden is a beast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoxFan1 Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 If this causes him to fall out of the top 2 picks, then the NBA is stupid. The entire NBA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo's Drinker Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 it a workout, look at the tapes...best talent ive seen in years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackie hayes Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 1 & 2 are set in stone. This is a curiosity, nothing more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knightni Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 Tayshaun Prince couldn't bench 185 either. How'd that work out? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RockRaines Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 QUOTE(knightni @ Jun 6, 2007 -> 03:16 PM) Tayshaun Prince couldn't bench 185 either. How'd that work out? He's a good role player. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rowand44 Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 (edited) QUOTE(RockRaines @ Jun 6, 2007 -> 02:20 PM) Oden is a beast. He's just insane, he really is. Anywho, not a big deal here with Durant, but I must say that it's pretty ridiculous that he can't bench 185. The guy is talented as all hell but he's really going to be a jump shooter for a while in the nba, me thinks. Edited June 6, 2007 by Rowand44 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RockRaines Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Jun 6, 2007 -> 03:19 PM) He's just insane, he really is. Anywho, not a big deal here with Durant, but I must say that it's pretty ridiculous that he can't bench 185. Durant is still awesome, but I find that hard to believe as well. There arent many lower tier college athletes that cant bench 185 at least once. In fact I bet most high school athletes could as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rowand44 Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 QUOTE(RockRaines @ Jun 6, 2007 -> 03:24 PM) Durant is still awesome, but I find that hard to believe as well. There arent many lower tier college athletes that cant bench 185 at least once. In fact I bet most high school athletes could as well. Ya, there's no doubt. Like you said, he's still an awesome player but not being able to get up 185 on the bench is just insanely weak for a pro athlete. I hope no one looks too far into this as far as his basketball skills go but it really is amazing to me that he can't lift that much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZoomSlowik Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 He'll still go #2, they might as well contract Seattle if they don't. He probably went into the thing half-assing it knowing that he was a mortal lock to go #2. Anyone who watches him play for more than 5 minutes knows he has insane talent and has a handful of All-Star games in front of him... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balta1701 Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 QUOTE(RockRaines @ Jun 6, 2007 -> 01:24 PM) Durant is still awesome, but I find that hard to believe as well. There arent many lower tier college athletes that cant bench 185 at least once. In fact I bet most high school athletes could as well. Well, on top of that...how thin was this guy? I mean, seriously, at least to my eyes, he looked like a freaking twig all year. He's 19 bloody years old and in good athletic shape...he probably can't bench 185 because his body just hasn't developed enough yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danman31 Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Jun 6, 2007 -> 03:19 PM) Anywho, not a big deal here with Durant, but I must say that it's pretty ridiculous that he can't bench 185. The guy is talented as all hell but he's really going to be a jump shooter for a while in the nba, me thinks. Yeah, 185?! That is sad. Still though, he will go #2 unless he shows attitude problems. This should eliminate the KG comparisons. An nbadraft.net article that I believe was posted here during the college season said the likely floor for Durant is Rashard Lewis and that is sounding a lot more realistic now. I'm not saying he will be Rashard Lewis, but a better version probably. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoxFan1 Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 Ben Wallace can curl 185 pounds with 1 arm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Allen Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 Considering how well Durant played while he was so weak, it will be interesting to see how much better he gets when a team gets him to hit the weights. I wonder how Larry Bird would have done on these drills. He was pretty good. You have to take Odon #1, but I think Durant is going to the HOF. The names of the players previously that have scored the highest on these drills haven't exactly become NBA stars. If Durant isn't picked #2 it will be an idiotic move that someone will be known for for a long while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danman31 Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 Hall of fame? Geez let's not pronounce the guy a God or anything...I'm fully expecting him to be a star, but hall of fame? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
witesoxfan Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 I recall it being a pretty big deal when Shaun Livingston couldn't bench 185, and he was like a 160 pound PG. If Durant wants to be anything more than a SF, that needs to increase drastically. It will, of course, just really stating the obvious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palehosefan Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 Durant would have been lucky to be able to lift the bar in high school. Tracy McGrady was another with no strength at that age. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZoomSlowik Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Jun 6, 2007 -> 04:51 PM) Considering how well Durant played while he was so weak, it will be interesting to see how much better he gets when a team gets him to hit the weights. I wonder how Larry Bird would have done on these drills. He was pretty good. You have to take Odon #1, but I think Durant is going to the HOF. The names of the players previously that have scored the highest on these drills haven't exactly become NBA stars. If Durant isn't picked #2 it will be an idiotic move that someone will be known for for a long while. Yeesh, bad. People would have overlooked it because of his insanely good shooting though, much like they will with Durant. I can't imagine any GM's really care about how someone like Durant performs in these things, if they do they should lose their job immediately. I don't know about Hall of Fame yet, but he'll be a very good player. I agree with what Danman said a couple of posts ago, Rashard Lewis is a pretty good worst case scenario... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rangercal Posted June 7, 2007 Author Share Posted June 7, 2007 Let's just say he would be a good bet to make the HOF if he reaches expectations. It is still 10 years too soon to make those type of predictions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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