The 2011 NBA Draft took place last Thursday, and while typically the next big thing to look forward to would be Summer League invites, the timeline has changed this summer due to the looming lockout. Instead of Summer League, though, teams have decided to keep busy by hosting NBA free agent workouts to get a look at the minimum salary-type guys for next season's training camp invites.
In the first post-draft workout, The Charlotte Bobcats will be hosting a slew of the usual candidates this week, according to Tony Gaffney (via Alex Kennedy).
The Bobcats lost their big guard in the backcourt when they shipped out Shaun Livingston in a draft day trade, leading me to believe that Garrett Temple, Orien Greene, Alan Anderson and Jermaine Taylor will probably be looked at with a keen eye from the Charlotte scouts. Anderson's last foray in the NBA was with the Bobcats during the 2006-07 season.
The team did bring in smaller point guards as well, including Cedric Jackson, Brandon Heath and Russell Robinson. All three have played in the D-League in the past, with some success, and Jackson has had numerous looks since coming out of Cleveland State.
Wings in attendance are set to include NBA veterans Ronald Dupree, Jawad Williams, DeMarre Carroll and Elijah Millsap, the younger brother of Utah Jazz power forward Paul Millsap. There's a good chance all four players end up in the NBA again at some point in their future.
Interestingly, the Bobcats are bringing in a slew of hardworking albeit seemingly undersized power forwards including Tony Gaffney, Stephane Lasme, Gary Flowers and Adam Koch. All but Flowers, a rookie out of Southern Miss, played in the D-League this past season.
This leaves three big men in Lance Allred, Patrick O'Bryant and Thomas Coleman. Allred is the most interesting as he's one of the best people I've come across in this business and has his second book coming soon, while O'Bryant is a former lottery pick and Coleman is a local rookie from North Carolina A&T.
It's unclear how many spots the Bobcats are going to want to dedicate to minimum salary players, but considering the majority of these guys are usual suspects from the Timberwolves, Thunder, Knicks, Hornets, Nuggets or Bulls free agents from the past few weeks, there's a good chance a majority of these players will pop up on NBA preseason rosters somewhere around the league.
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