Three guys who didn’t get drafted but should have been

[Big Bid'Ness]

Fromrobasketballtalk

When you get to the end of the second round of the NBA Draft, you see a lot of “stash” picks — teams take players from Europe they think could develop but aren’t ready to come over to the United States. They stash them in Europe for a couple years.

There were some of those this year — three of the final 13 picks in the draft were American born — picks like Izzet Turkylimaz and Ognjen Kuzmic who may never see the NBA.

Meanwhile, some guys who deserve a shot go undrafted. I don’t just mean guys we were rooting for — I wanted to see Long Beach State’s Casper Ware get drafted and still think he’ll kill it at Summer League — but guys better than some of those taken who deserve a shot.

Here are just three guys who should have gotten their chance Thursday night and now will have to go the free agent route.

Scott Machado (6’2” point guard, Iona). Really surprised by this one. In an up-tempo offense (or as a change-of-pace guy off the bench) he can do damage. He plays fast and fans will love him at Summer League (and on a team next fall).

The Brazilian is a pure point guard with fantastic court vision that some scouts thought was second best in this draft (behind Kendall Marshall of North Carolina). He knows how to make plays, especially in transition. He’s not a great athlete by NBA standards but he scored at a pretty good clip in college (13.6 points per game on 49.5 percent shooting). Put him in the right situation and he can thrive.

Drew Gordon (6’9” power forward, New Mexico). He has a real NBA power forward’s body and he was a fantastic, aggressive rebounder at the college level. He’s not much of an offensive threat, but you’re telling me there are teams that can’t use a big who can defend and board?

Kevin Jones (6’7” power forward, West Virginia). Very interesting tweet from the brilliant Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress after the draft: “Kevin Jones learned a valuable lesson tonight. You don’t pick your older brother to be your agent. Hopefully not too late for him.” His agent/brother had said Jones had a first-round promise. I’ll just say when you’re a second round pick, an agent that turns teams off can have you falling fast.

Jones a little small at the power forward spot , especially since he did his damage in the post in college and that will be a lot harder for him in the NBA. But he’s got a huge wingspan, plays hard and has an outside shot. He led the Big East in scoring and rebounding. He’s a tweener but you would have thought one team would have given him a shot.

 

[CameronCrazy06]

Henry Sims, Hollis Thompson, etc.

 

[The Young One]

William Buford

 

[elcheato]

Buford's fall from grace was just sad to see. I thought he could be a pretty good pro.

 

[playmaker7]

I thought for sure Machado would be a Laker

Guess not, but I felt like some team should have surely drafted him.