Philadelphia 76ers' Summer League player Vernon Goodridge has secured a training camp contract with the Golden State Warriors according to his agent, Brian Bass of RBA Sports. Goodridge, a 6-foot-9 forward who played split his college career between Mississippi State and LaSalle, was a top-40 recruit and the fourth-ranked center out of high school according to Scout.com.
Though his playing time was limited in college, Goodridge showed a good ability to block shots, culminating in an average of 1.6 blocks while playing 21 minutes per game while at LaSalle in 2008-2009.
The 26-year-old big man out of Brooklyn didn't get a lot of minutes for the Sixers' Summer League team, either - which was probably to be expected with Marreese Speights as well as former NBA draft picks' Cedric Simmons and Trent Plaisted also sharing the frontcourt - but didn't make many mistakes while averaging just over 13 minutes of court time for the team.
Goodridge is a bit of an unknown at this time, but the major reason for that is due to his choice of college - he also had scholarship offers from Georgetown, Connecticut, Clemson, Florida State, Pittsburgh, Seton Hall, St. John's and Virginia Tech, a few of which would have probably been able to develop his game a bit more.
Golden State represents a good opportunity for the still-developing player, though, because there should be plenty of minutes available during the preseason with the injuries to David Lee and Ekpe Udoh. The fact that the Warriors like to play an open-style offense that will allow Goodridge to play to his strengths - particularly his speed and athleticism - which should help him endear himself to other teams if the Warriors don't pick him up for the season.
In all honesty, regardless of how his NBA experience ends up this fall, just the fact that he's being written about right now after being all-but-forgotten since high school means that he's probably on the right path.
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