NEW YORK- The fog still hasn’t lifted from tonight’s NBA draft. There is no lock franchise player available and the Cleveland Cavaliers, who have the No. 1 selection overall, are reportedly still deciding whether to select Maryland’s 7-1, 255-pound sophomore center Alex Len or Kentucky’s 6-11 3/4, 225-pound precocious shot blocker Nerlens Noel — or simply trade the pick. Len is more than happy to offer his advice on the subject.
“There is no LeBron James in this draft, but I think I have the biggest upside of the big guys,” Len said. “Ten years from now, I’ll be the best player out of this draft.”
Neither Len nor Noel has an extensive body of work on their resume and each is coming back from serious injuries.
But Len has the benefit of a snap shot taken earlier this season when he played against defending national champion Kentucky in the opening game of the 2013 season at the sparkling new Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Len was coming off a freshman season in which he showed flashes of NBA potential but struggled to learn English and was considered an underachiever after serving a 10-game suspension at the beginning of the year due to amateurism issues resulting from his play with BC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, a European club team from his home country, the Ukraine.
But he was the dominant player in the game, overpowering Noel, the No. 1 prospect in the class of 2012, the entire game, scoring 23 points, 12 rebounds and 4 blocks during a 72-69 loss, while limiting Noel to 4 points, 9 rebounds and 3 blocks.
“I think I should definitely go ahead of him. I played against him and did well against him,” Len said. “It was my best game of the season. That’s my competitive side coming out. I want to be No. 1.”
Len had other magical moments, making a game winning shot with 0.9 seconds left in a 51-50 victory against North Carolina State, then dominating Duke’s 6-10 star senior Mason Plumlee the next month during a 83-81 victory at College Park. Len finished with 19 points and 9 rebounds, holding Plumlee to just 4 points, much to the joy of rabid Terp fans, who have a special hatred for the Dukies.
Len went from the ninth or 10th rated player to the potential flavor of the month in Cleveland, where the Cavs see him as the reincarnation of their former seven-foot center Zydrunas Ilgaukas from Lithuania, who is now an assistant GM in Cleveland’s front office, because his agility, ability to run the floor and step up and make jump shots.
The two formed an immediate bond when Len visited, conversing in Russian.
Len averaged a modest 11.9 points and 7.9 rebounds, but numbers can be deceiving. Player evaluations are becoming too tied to statistical analysis. There has never been more money invested by teams to find out if a player can’t play. Too often, statistics lie. Look at Enron. Look at Bernie Medoff. Money ball doesn’t always win. We can only imagine what kind of damage Len might have done if he had better guards who could get him the ball in the post or he had been completely healthy.
Len, as it turns out, claims he played the final two months of the season with a stress fracture that became so painful by the ACC tournament in Greensboro in early March, he needed ankle treatment just to walk around the team hotel. Len only practiced two or three times in post season when the Terps advanced to the NIT final four at the Garden. Len, who underwent surgery in May is still wearing a walking boot, but should be able to practice again in August and be close to 100 percent by the start of practice in October. Noel, who suffered a season ending ACL injury midway through the SEC season, will miss at least the first two weeks of the regular season.
The NBA draft has become more of a guessing game than ever before and the Cavs have a history of drafting players based on long term upside. They are more interested in who will be the best player in five years, not who is the best player today.
Noel has been on top of the Cavs’ big board all season, but the 19-year-old Len, who doctors suggest may have another inch of height left in his body because his growth plate is open, may just be started to reach his potential. He never even picked up a basketball until he was 13 years old. Len was more interested in gymnastics. He was discovered when his high school coach spotted this tall, gangly youngster fooling around on the parallel bars in a gym class. He immediately marched Len over to the basketball court, where his face the basket offensive skills quickly blossomed and he emerged as a star on the Ukrainian junior national team. Len put himself on a fast track for the NBA after the European Junior championships when he opted to play college basketball in this country, selecting Maryland over Virginia Tech, the only schools who recruited him.
He felt he was ready to make the leap after this season. He had mastered English and has taken a more mature approach to the game and is excited about the challenge of playing against Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan.
If Len becomes the surprise No. 1 pick, he will set off fireworks in the Ukraine, where the most popular sport is still soccer but basketball is making inroads.
“It would be a big thing for my country,” he said
It will also give this draft, which is considered flat talent wise because there are no future All Pros or Hall of Famers in the group who can make an immediate contribution to a struggling team, some much needed sizzle.
