NBA Draft 2011: Pacers Will Workout Six Players, But Not In Front Of Coach Frank Vogel

The NBA Draft is still plenty of weeks away, but the pre-draft workouts are in full-swing with second round prospects all over the country. Today's featured workout, however, is Indiana as the Pacers plan to host JaJuan Johnson (Purdue), Justin Harper (Richmond), Corey Fisher (Villanova), Darius Morris (Michigan), Josh Selby (Kansas) and Chris Wright (Georgetown) on Thursday afternoon.

As the title of the story implies, however, those six players won't get a chance to showcase their wares in front of Frank Vogel -- the Pacers current head coach. Don't read into that too much, however, because president of basketball operations Larry Bird is just trying to keep other candidates from being jealous.

"I'm talking to some people and I'm talking to (Vogel)," Bird told the Indianapolis Star. "When these guys come in, I don't want them to think he's going to be the coach."

The name most familiar to the locals is going to be JaJuan Johnson, a rather thin 6-foot-10 forward from Indianapolis. The former Boilermaker is currently slated to go in the top of the second round, but could certainly fall to the Pacers second round pick (42nd overall) if things don't workout as planned during his scheduled workouts.

Johnson's competition at this workout, 6-foot-9 forward Justin Harper -- formerly of the feared Richmond Spiders -- is projected around the same area in most mock drafts. Harper has a bit more upside, however, and is less familiar to NBA scouts after playing in the Atlantic 10 for the past four seasons. 

The four guards invited to the workout are a bit of a crapshoot depending on what the team is looking for, but Josh Selby's a player that could easily begin climbing the draft boards after showing he's a bit more athletic than he was given credit for when the NBA Combine measurements came out on Wednesday.