Before his workouts and team meetings, Donte Greene said he was hearing his name among the possibilities to be drafted in the Top Ten. Since then, all signs seem to be pointing to a slightly less appealing draft status. First, the official list of players invited to the NBA Draft Green Room has been announced and Donte's not on it. Mike Waters explains the impact:
This doesn't mean that Greene won't be among the first 16 players selected in the draft. The NBA usually invites 15 or 16 players to attend the draft based on a poll of the NBA's general managers. It's a consensus poll. However, there could be one or two teams among those clubs with top 16 picks who are thinking of drafting Greene.Not the best of signs for a guy who was consistently in the Top 16 on mock draft boards up until now. But the drop-off seems to be effecting the mockers as well. ESPN's Chad Ford now has Donte all the way down at #25 heading to Houston:
This seems like an unbelievable fall for a player with as much upside as Greene. Indeed, teams like the Kings and Warriors will look at him in the lottery, and likewise for the Raptors in the mid-first round. But if he slips past them, he could be on a free fall. He's a great shooter with upside, but he's not ready yet.NBADraft.net also has Donte at #22. To be fair, there's a few mocks still out there putting Donte in the mid-teens, but they may be slightly outdated.
And leave it to Doug Gottlieb to share the following "praise" he heard about Greene:
The same guy told me, "Donte Greene does one thing and one thing only: He shoots. He does not guard, rebound, defend or anything else, but he shoots all the time and he is a good, not great, shooter."Oofa. To be fair, would it be such a horrible thing for the guy if he went in the 20's to a good basketball team where he could learn from quality veterans? That said, I do remember Donte saying at one point during the season that he's only leave SU early if he thought he was going to go top fifteen. We'll find out Thursday if he'll regret the move.