More On Chris Douglas-Roberts
June 30th, 2008 at 10:37 amBy Chris
On Friday, I wrote a post intimating a lot of NBA teams missed out on drafting Chris Douglas-Roberts, a would-be senior guard for the University of Memphis (he left as a junior). Well, apparently, there was a reason these teams passed on CDR — he didn’t appear at many of the individually workout sessions for any of the interested teams drafting later in the first round, including the Detroit Pistons.
According to FanHouse, Roberts skipped his workout in Detroit and when he did perform for other teams, the results weren’t necessarily stellar:
but given how far CDR fell from his projected first round draft spot (most mocks had him in the 20-25-ish range), it’s likely that many other teams shared these feelings. Plus, the few teams that CDR did decide to work out for had less than glowing reviews. The biggest knock on him was that he wore down near the end of the workouts, and that he wouldn’t be ready to contribute big minutes in his first NBA season. You would think a player would go through as many workouts as he could to dispel those negative perceptions, but obviously CDR (or his people) didn’t feel it was necessary.
Which brings up a great point — if you are worried about your draft position slipping and there are already negative perceptions concerning the workouts you did do, I don’t think skipping out on the other ones is the best way to improve your NBA Draft stock. Because of CDR’s (lack of) effort, he now finds himself with no guaranteed money while fighting for a spot to make the New Jersey Nets roster.
Maybe CDR’s slip can serve as a lesson to other players who may be falling out of the guaranteed money first round.
June 30th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
Utter bullshit. Chris Douglas-Roberts worked out for several teams in the mid-20’s including the Nets. The Newark Star-Ledger reported before the draft that Douglas Roberts had the best workout of any of the 30+ players who had come to NJ.
The Nets took Brook Lopez at @10 even though he repeatedly refused to work out for them. That happens all the time. At least one player taken after Lopez also had refused to work out for the Nets. The workout is not the defining part of any team’s decision on who to draft. By then, the player has been scouted multiple times by multiple members of the team front office, had his DVD’s scrutinized and sliced into segments by team video analysts.
Then, we have this pathetic story from some anonymous caller to some second-rate sports radio show in Detroit claiming that he had been at the Douglas-Roberts draft party, where Douglas-Roberts said he didnt want to play for Detroit. One problem, as the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported, Douglas Roberts had worked at Calipari’s basketball camp til late in the afternoon, then boarded a flight early in the evening DELIBERATELY timing it so he would miss the draft.
Who knows why Douglas-Roberts didn’t go in the first round. Maybe NBA teams didnt think he was quick enough. But it is silly to suggest that if had worked out for the Pistons they might have picked him. This isn’t about pique. It’s about analysis.
June 30th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Perhaps Detroit took CDR’s thanks, but no thanks as a sign not to draft him. I am also curious as to why Boston Giddens over Roberts or the Bulls took Weems. I suppose it could be a talent issue, but CDR isn’t an athletic liability by any means. Futhermore, I’m curious if the reports of his few workouts and him being gassed towards the end of them are true.
If so, that couldn’t have helped his stock. Just look how an erroneous report about Darrell Arthur’s kidney affected his draft.
As for the airplane business, CBS Sportsline mentioned the same thing, although, I wasn’t sure when the reports of him not wanting be a Piston emerged. Thanks for clearing that up.
July 1st, 2008 at 12:36 am
Well…I’m a University of Memphis fan, and obviously a CDR fan. It’s unfortunate that he slipped to the 40th pick in the draft but from here, all he can do is work his butt off and make all the other GM’s in the league regret passing up on him. CDR is a baller, an old school baller and had a great career at the UofM. I wish him the best and will be pulling for him this upcoming season. It’s the land of opportunity…make the most of it CDR.