Nba Draft

Arrested development Ira Winderman Sun Sentinel The biggest surprise will come in training camps, when teams realize how incomplete most prospects truly are. The bulk of wing players either can slash or shoot, but few can do both. Virtually all of the point guards (beyond John Wall) tend to be score-first types who spent a significant portion of their college careers playing off the ball. The big men can block shots and rebound but offer precious little when it comes to post play.

Baltimore Sun reporter Don Markus and editor Matt Bracken weigh in on the three biggest topics of the past week in Maryland sports. Will Alex Len's injury impact his draft status? Don Markus: Len, who will be out four to six months after undergoing surgery to stabilize his left ankle, is definitely going to be a lottery pick in next month's NBA draft. Most mock drafts have the 7-1 center going anywhere from No. 5 to No. 11, but a lot will have to do with the outcome of the bouncing balls that determine the order of the lottery.

What has been anticipated around the Maryland basketball program for months has become reality: sophomore Alex Len will forgo the last two years of his college career, a source with knowledge of the situation said Sunday night. Yahoo Sports first reported Sunday that the 7-1 center from Ukraine has put his name into the NBA draft. It is not known whether Len, who is expected to be a lottery pick, has hired an agent. Len, who averaged 11.9 points and 7.8 rebounds for the Terps last season, had until April 28 to put his name in the draft.

Departing Maryland center Alex Len underwent surgery for a partial stress fracture in his left ankle that was diagnosed after he declared for the NBA draft, according to his agent. The injury -- and subsequent surgery performed by orthopedic surgeon Dr. Robert Anderson in Charlotte, N.C. -- will complicate NBA teams' efforts to evaluate the 7-footer before the June 27 draft. The surgery "will keep Len out of basketball for four-to-six months,  and the player will miss activities leading up to the draft," said a release by Sports International Group Inc., of Gaithersburg.

Maryland coach Mark Turgeon took the two little turtle figurines out of his coat pocket and placed them on the table in front of him. Alex Len, whose mother Juliya had given Turgeon the figurines when her then 18-year-old son first committed to the Terps, sat at the coach's side. One of the figurines represented a baby turtle, the other one fully grown. “She said I am giving Alex to you as a baby, when he leaves here I want him to be a man,” Turgeon recalled Tuesday after Len announced he was leaving Maryland to make himself eligible for the NBA draft.

When he was in elementary school, Maryland guard Terrell Stoglin - already talented - created a scrapbook about his basketball skills. “No one can stop him,” Stoglin wrote. No one, it seems, but himself. On Monday, Maryland confirmed that Stoglin - a prodigious scorer who took a higher percentage of the team's total shots last season than almost any Terp in the last 60 years - had been suspended for a year for violating rules governing student athletes. Stoglin, a sophomore, entered his name for the NBA draft on Sunday, the last day a player could sign up for the June 28th draft.

LANDOVER -- David Stern has been commissioner of the NBA for several years now and still he never gets it right. Following the playoffs every season, he strides to the podium proudly and gushes, "Welcome to the [fill in the year] NBA Draft."Not once has he ever used the word "Fantasyland" regarding this glorious night of grab-bag, but that indeed is what this exercise is. One would assume, after listening to all the &r superlatives flying around, they were divvying up the players who have made it into the hoop Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass.

Former Maryland guard Terrell Stoglin thinks he was wrongly portrayed, on and off the court, in College Park, and seems confident he will get a chance to change his image in the NBA. Displaying the same bravado that helped the barely 6-foot guard lead the Atlantic Coast Conference in scoring as a sophomore - not to mention exhibit the candor that sometimes got him into trouble - Stoglin said he would be surprised if he is not picked in...

Fact: UNLV, Georgetown, North Carolina, Kentucky, Indiana, Oklahoma and DePaul did not have any players selected in the last NBA draft.Opinion: Thumbs up to the idea of the Orioles' signing Matt Young. He can carry a game into the eighth inning, which, for the Orioles, means all the way to Mark Williamson and Gregg Olson.Fact: The NFL's top rusher, Marion Butts of the Chargers, carried the ball exactly 29 times as a senior at Florida State in 1988.Opinion: Thumbs down to the idea of the Orioles' signing Franklin Stubbs.

David Stern, is this really what you wanted? Is this what we wanted? I scan the mock drafts, study the list of mysterious names and furrow my brow. Is this the NBA draft or the voter registry for Uzbekistan? Looking at the names, I can't tell the difference. And even though the NBA draft is supposed to be a bright spot on the sports calendar, I can't help but think that this year's nameless, faceless list of prospective draft picks is exactly what the NBA deserves. Darko Milicic would go No. 1 in this year's class.

Maryland coach Mark Turgeon took the two little turtle figurines out of his coat pocket and placed them on the table in front of him. Alex Len, whose mother Juliya had given Turgeon the figurines when her then 18-year-old son first committed to the Terps, sat at the coach's side. One of the figurines represented a baby turtle, the other one fully grown. “She said I am giving Alex to you as a baby, when he leaves here I want him to be a man,” Turgeon recalled Tuesday after Len announced he was leaving Maryland to make himself eligible for the NBA draft.

What has been anticipated around the Maryland basketball program for months has become reality: sophomore Alex Len will forgo the last two years of his college career, a source with knowledge of the situation said Sunday night. Yahoo Sports first reported Sunday that the 7-1 center from Ukraine has put his name into the NBA draft. It is not known whether Len, who is expected to be a lottery pick, has hired an agent. Len, who averaged 11.9 points and 7.8 rebounds for the Terps last season, had until April 28 to put his name in the draft.

Alex Len played it coy Wednesday when asked if he'd return to Maryland for his junior season or declare for the NBA draft. The Terps' 7-foot-1 center actually prefaced his remarks by saying he hadn't thought about it, which is hard to believe, given he's projected as pretty much a consensus lottery pick if he goes pro. "I'm just trying to go ahead day by day and play every game," he told reporters in Greensboro, N.C., where the Terps will...

Maryland center Alex Len said it's too early to say whether he will return for his junior season or  opt for the NBA draft. “No, I  haven't thought about it,” the seven-footer from Ukraine  said after the Terps practiced at Greensboro (N.C.) Coliseum for Thursday night's ACC tournament game against Wake Forest. “I'm just trying to go ahead day by day and play every game. Right now, I'm focused on Wake Forest and I'm just going to think about it after the season.” Len is averaging 11.8 points and 8.1 rebounds per game.

Former Lake Clifton guard Josh Selby was waived Sunday by the Cleveland Cavaliers. Selby, The Baltimore Sun's Male Athlete of the Year in 2010, began the 2012-13 NBA season with the Memphis Grizzlies. He has averaged 2.0 points and 5.9 minutes in 10 NBA games this season. Selby also appeared in 11 games for the Canton Charge of the NBA D-League this season, averaging 15.3 points, 6.5 rebounds and 4.2 assists in 32.9 minutes per game. Selby spent one season at Kansas before declaring for the NBA draft in 2011.

Just a guess: Henson Brian Schmitz Orlando Sentinel You're asking me? I got Jay Bilas on speed-dial for you. Here's the best-kept secret when NBA writers talk about college players: They have no idea. They can only tell you who their coaches are. And only at Duke, North Carolina and Kentucky. Actually, funnier than asking NBA writers about college kids are asking NBA coaches, past or present. Jeff Van Gundy looked like a guy who didn't have answers to a pop quiz Thursday night.

The NBA has taken some public relations hits of late, what with the nearly unwatchable Finals, "Big Shot" Robert Horry shot-putting Steve Nash into the scorer's table and Kobe Bryant's YouTube moments, but say this for the league: At least it can finish its draft in the same calendar year that it started (hello, NFL). Here's a primer on tonight's draft: Draft certainties We've pretty much known since Ohio State freshman Greg Oden and Texas freshman Kevin Durant declared themselves eligible for the draft that they would go first and second overall.

Will Barton has heard all about his perceived detractors: He's too skinny, too unorthodox and too undisciplined. But Thursday night, he was an NBA draft pick. It may have taken longer than he'd hoped, but Barton - a swingman out of Memphis - went at No. 40 to the Portland Trail Blazers. He will join All-Star forward LaMarcus Aldridge on a team that finished a disappointing 28-38 last season, missing the playoffs for the first time in three years. Four picks later, guard Kim English, a Baltimore native who played at Randallstown and then Missouri, was drafted by the Detroit Pistons with the 44th overall pick in the second round.

Will Barton has done the research. He's pored over the numbers, he's tracked the stocks and he's talked with the experts. Something just doesn't add up. How could the most efficient swingman in college basketball not be considered a lottery pick in Thursday's NBA Draft? "The numbers don't lie," Barton said last week. "I mean, if you look at my production, it'll show you that there's no way I'm not the best or at least up there in the top range of the draft." He's right.