Who Are These Guys??

You have to sign a general D-League contract in order to be eligible for the draft. The league has a vetting process to make sure that only the most qualified people are in the draft pool.

The final list of players eligible for the D-League draft was just released. I was not one of the 261 people on the list. That is going to make things quite difficult for me in the “getting drafted” department.

I had a small chance of being selected even if I was eligible, but it would have been nice to be included. Particularly because of some of the other players that made the cut.

I want to look at some of the shorter people that are in the draft pool, because they are presumably my competition. Keep in mind that everyone listed at 6’0 is probably 5’10, and everyone listed at 5’11 is more like 5’8. That’s just the way basketball works.
For instance, see Courtney Lee, and his 6’5 listing.

I played some pickup against Lee a few years ago, and he is MAYBE 6’3 if he is wearing thick soled shoes and did an hour of yoga that morning. But there is no downside to listing yourself as taller than you are, so you’d be foolish not to.

And just to be clear, I am the last person to denigrate someone just because they are relatively unknown. There are tons of people out there who can thrive if they get an opportunity. Maybe one of these guys will get drafted and have a great career, and if so, more power to them. One of them might have absolutely killed during a tryout. Who knows. It’s just from where I’m sitting, these people seem to be particularly under qualified for inclusion in the draft.

Lets start off with 6’0 Malik Alvin, from Shaw University. Every team needs a locker room guy who once got kicked out of Binghamton for stealing condoms from a Wal-Mart, right? I’m not saying people don’t deserve a second chance, but it’s not like this guy is Isiah Thomas reincarnate. He’s a regular dude who put up decent stats while going to 3 schools in 4 years. Tell me there’s not more deserving people out there.

Then there’s 6’0 Steffan Bonneau, who had a great career at CW Post. I think that’s to be expected since he was 24 playing against 18 year olds. And also, what the hell is CW Post? That sounds like it could be the name of a supporting character in a Harry Potter book.

Moving on, I think teams would be silly not to draft 5’10 Cervante Burrell from Seattle University. Any time you have the chance to take an undersized guard who averaged 8 points, 5 assists and literally never shoots threes (he averaged .1 three point attempts per game,) you have to jump at it.

The puzzling inclusions continue with 5’10 Vinny McGhee from Cal State Northridge. He must have an uncle coaching in the league or something. How else do you explain someone becoming draft eligible who barely cracks 30% from the two and shoots 29% from the three? 30% on two’s?? That’s unheard of. He better be a pretty phenomenal passer with those numbers. And his team went 7-21. Yikes.

Finally, I couldn’t find any firm stats on 6’0 Mark Snipes of Siena Heights, but I’m gonna poke fun at his conference anyway. Siena Heights plays in the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference. My half hearted googling couldn’t even turn up what division that was. What other conference is named by using two nicknames and hyphenating them? And why put Hoosier in your name when only 1 of the conferences 12 teams is located in Indiana? The WHAC has some explaining to do.

OK, that’s enough of that. Can’t stay mad forever! Time to see what else is out there for me.