More Coverage
One week from today is a night most basketball players dream of taking part in. For former Rebels Christian Wood and Rashad Vaughn it’s about to be reality.
The NBA Draft starts at 4 p.m. Las Vegas time on Thursday, June 25, in Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, and it’s almost guaranteed that both players will hear their names called by the time it’s done. The consensus from mock drafts, which should be taken with a shaker of salt, is that one will go in the first round and the other in the second, but what’s interesting is that the order has flipped since the underclassmen left UNLV with eligibility remaining.
Last year two players — juniors Roscoe Smith and Khem Birch — left the program early with hopes of getting drafted, and while Birch showed up on a few second-round projections, neither was assured of anything. They went undrafted and put up good numbers in the NBA D-League, where they await an opportunity to move up.
It should be more of a celebratory night around UNLV’s offices this time around, thanks largely to the glowing reviews coming out of Vaughn’s individual workouts.
“I think he’s the most healthy he’s been right now and that’s one of the reasons he’s shooting up the draft boards,” said UNLV coach Dave Rice.
Vaughn didn’t practice for most of the summer before his freshman season because of surgery to repair the meniscus in his right knee, and his UNLV career ended Feb. 10 because of a torn meniscus in his left knee. In between he averaged a team-leading 17.8 points per game with 4.8 rebounds and a 38.3 shooting percentage beyond the arc.
NBA scouts aren’t allowed to comment publicly on prospects, but one scout who has seen UNLV several times said that teams are trying to weigh Vaughn’s shooting stroke and athletic build against their traffic-light injury risk system.
“The greatest predictor of future injury is past injury,” he said. “He’s probably a yellow light.”
In the latest mocks from Draft Express, NBADraft.net, ESPN and Sports Illustrated, Vaughn is as high as No. 21 and he doesn’t make it below No. 25 in any of them. A month ago he was rarely slotted in the first round at all.
Then there’s Wood, who has basically traded places with his fellow Findlay Prep and UNLV product. After averaging a double-double plus 2.7 blocks per game, Wood took longer to declare and did so after sending out several tweets suggesting he would return for his junior season.
“I wish that Chris would have handled that differently,” Rice said. “I think Chris wishes he would have handled that differently, but it is what it is and I don’t think it changes the fact that Chris had a productive year.”
After working into the rotation as a freshman, Wood’s role grew exponentially last season and while maturity and work ethic were occasional question marks production was not. In only five games did he grab fewer than seven rebounds and he led the team in scoring 13 times.
“The question on him is pretty simple,” the scout said. “Take where he was as a junior or senior in high school to a sophomore at UNLV; can he continue this improvement pattern? If he develops as much as his senior year at Findlay to now, he’s going to be really good.”
Wood’s measurements at the NBA Draft combine are a good way of examining why he might be sliding, but not too far to be concerned.
Despite his lanky frame — 6-foot-9 1/4 inches without shoes and 216 pounds — Wood had the second highest body fat percentage of the 63 prospects measured at 14.7 percent. However, he also had the seventh longest wingspan (7-3.25) and the second largest hand width (10.75), which is measured from thumb to pinkie. The former can be changed through proper diet while the latter are desirable tools that aren’t going anywhere.
Buzz terms like upside and project have long been associated with Wood, who will turn 20 a month before the next NBA season starts. If he does make it out of the first round he won’t last long in the second, where contracts aren’t guaranteed and teams are more willing to use picks on guys with higher ceilings.
“They will in the second round draft Christian before they’ll draft Dellavedova,” the scout said, referring to undrafted Cleveland Cavaliers guard Matthew Dellavedova.
This time of year is filled with misinformation and misdirection as NBA teams throw up smoke screens to hide their interests and intentions. The only certainty comes a week from now, and when it does the odds are at least one Rebel, if not both, will be happy with the outcome.
Taylor Bern can be reached at 948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Taylor on Twitter at twitter.com/taylorbern.
Join the Discussion:
Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.
Full comments policy