BATON ROUGE — Will the night of the annual NBA Draft be special for some LSU seniors? The answers will come in two rounds of selection as the league makes its annual picks Thursday night at 6:30 p.m. The event is televised on ESPN and NBAtv.
Much of the focus on the draft will be regarding the Southeastern Conference 2009 SEC Player of the Year Marcus Thornton. Thornton helped LSU to the SEC Championship in a year in which he averaged 21.1 points per game and 5.5rebounds. The shooting guard was invited to the Chicago pre-draft camp and has worked out for many of the teams in the league according to agent Brian Elfus.
“Every team has seen him,” Elfus told the Times Picayune. “We’ve had some calls from teams that aren’t in the first round who are trying to trade their way in. I’ve heard nothing but good things from anyone.”
While some of the draft sites have Thornton a late-first round pick, such as MyNBADraft.com (26), NBA Draft Depot (30) and CBS Sportsline (22), the NBA mock draft on ESPN has continually listed Thornton as a second-round selection.
Coach Trent Johnson has talked to several of the teams and scouts and understands that anything can happen. “He’s had some good workouts. I think he has a very good chance to be a first-round pick, but the NBA is good at keeping its cards close to the vest.”
If Thornton is a first-round pick it will mark the fourth time in 10 years that LSU has had a first-round pick joining Stromile Swift (2000), Tyrus Thomas (2006) and Anthony Randolph (2008). In all, LSU has had 13 first-round picks in the NBA.
Also watching the draft closely will be center Chris Johnson and guard Garrett Temple. Both have had several workouts with teams and will be looking for spots in the second round of the draft. Even if not drafted, reports are that the pair has impressed enough scouts that they will be invited to camp by some team as free agents this fall.
Johnson averaged 7.7 points, 7.2 rebounds and blocked 95 shots this season. Temple, who earned his reputation in college as a defensive stopper, averaged 7.1 points and 4.5 rebounds with a team best 134 assists.