Fran Fraschilla on NBA Draft

By: LARRY VAUGHT

ESPN college basketball analyst Fran Fraschilla will deliver analysis on international players during Thursday night’s NBA Draft in Brooklyn, N.Y., but he spent time discussing several Kentucky players and their draft possibilities during a teleconference call with media members.

He sees Kentucky center Dakari Johnson as a likely second round draft pick and tabbed him as a “project” for whatever team picks him.

“Given Kentucky's platoon system this year and the fact that this was Dakari's second year at Kentucky, obviously he probably didn't get the reps, the touches in the low post, the exposure that he would have gotten had Kentucky not had such a tremendous team,” said Fraschilla. “Basically the way NBA teams look at Dakari right now, he is a young sophomore, young for his age. He has the size to be an NBA center, obviously.

“He's done a terrific job in the last 12 months of refining his body, losing weight, adding muscle, and my evaluation of him is that he's a very safe late‑first‑round to mid‑second‑round pick, in part because this league is — although the league has gone to a small‑ball type of game — it's still about positional size, size at every position.”

The ESPN analyst says a team will hope it can “cultivate” Johnson.

“He's probably not going to help an NBA team immediately, but you'd like to have a young big kid like this on your roster and hope to develop him,” Fraschilla said.

Here’s insights he offered on some other Kentucky players going into Thursday night’s draft.

Question: What do you make of the Harrison twins — Andrew and Aaron — and where their stock is at this stage?
Fraschilla: “It’s all over the board in the second round. I think there's more of a buzz about Andrew, I think because of the fact that teams think he can be a big point guard in the league. The concern that teams have had about Aaron is his outside shooting. They both have good size. I'd be surprised if either player goes in the first round. They're both going to get an opportunity to make rosters next year, but things really haven't changed much since the end of the season. I do hear more buzz about Andrew's draft prospects than I do Aaron's at this point.”

Question: Kentucky has had a number of first‑round picks over the last few years, and how much of that you think is a developmental thing in particular with Kentucky. How much of it is a tribute to excellent recruiting — bringing in players who would be the type of draft pick wherever they went?
Fraschilla: “I think John Calipari would tell you that it's first and foremost about the recruiting because he's been able to do an incredible job since he arrived at recruiting the best players in the country. That's a given. That's a fact. There's no argument there. But anybody who thinks that he hasn't developed a lot of these guys then doesn't realize how good a coach John is.

“Each Kentucky team has seemed to have its own challenges in terms of John getting his individual players ready for the NBA. This team was all about the platoon system, how he was going to keep everybody happy. As it turns out, I think you're going to see guys that were under the radar a little bit during their college careers as freshmen, particularly (Trey) Lyles and (Devin) Booker, end up being very good NBA players, in part because they were well thought of coming into college, highly ranked, and also because they spent a year practicing against some of the best players in the country and adhering to John's coaching. It's definitely a little bit of both.”

Question: LeBron James’ agent, Rich Paul, has two clients in the draft, Trey Lyles from Kentucky and Montrezl Harrell from Louisville. What are your thoughts for both players, what do you see for them Thursday and then as pros?
Fraschilla: “I think I love Trey Lyles. I think the fact that you're not hearing much buzz about him, you're not hearing anybody say, ‘sources are saying about Trey Lyles,’ means that there are some teams that really like him, and I think his range right now is nine through 14. And I do know for a fact that there are teams that like him because when you look at him coming out of high school, he was considered one of the best power forwards in the class of whatever it is, '14, I guess, but he played out of position this year at small forward, which is what he is not and likely never will be.


“But at 6'10" with good size, he's young, he's sturdy, he's got an NBA body, he's got some ability to make shots from the perimeter, although the field‑goal percentage was not good, I think that he's a guy that ... not necessarily slipping through anybody's cracks but is going to end up being a good NBA player, and probably suffered a little bit being lost in the shuffle.

“And then with Montrezl Harrell, you're looking at the classic undersized, high‑energy, low‑skill inside player that is probably going to go in the late first round and be an energy guy, and he can make his mark in the league because he's a terrific rebounder and he plays hard. He would want to fashion his game after Kenneth Faried, which is what the comparison has been since he arrived at Kentucky. Both of those guys I think are in the first round, and the future bodes well for both of them.