There are a number of Minnesotans that hope to hear their names called during Thursday’s NBA Draft.
Trevor Mbakwe (St. Paul) and Rodney Williams (New Hope) of the Gophers, Nate Wolters (St. Cloud) of South Dakota State, and Mike Muscala (Roseville) of Bucknell give the Land of 10,000 Lakes some names to keep an eye on.
Here’s what anonymous NBA scouts think of them, courtesy of Sports Illustrated.
Mbakwe: “On the court I think he can contribute, but the off-court stuff has to be cause for concern. I think he makes a roster. He’s undersized. Maybe he could make it as a Reggie Evans or Paul Millsap type, but he’s not as good as either of those guys.”
Wolters: “An extremely smart basketball player. He has improved his shot and has a good runner. My main concern is whether he can guard a quick guard. He has a chance to make it in the NBA depending on which team he is with. If you look at his stats this year before he hurt his ankle, he shot like 48 percent from three. I’m not saying he’ll be great, but he’s definitely an NBA player. His first step is quicker than people realize.”
Another unidentified scout told Yahoo! Sports that he wonders if Wolters is the next Steve Nash.
Muscala: “He has a tremendous amount of talent, but he’s really soft. He wants nothing to do with any physicality down low, and I don’t think he has enough stuff off the bounce to be Byron Mullens. At Bucknell, they have one strength coach for all their sports. When he does this for a living, he could get bigger and stronger. But at the end of the day I just don’t think he’s good enough.”
