<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Bill Walker, G/F, Kansas State Walker has been on the NBA radar screen since 10th grade. His explosive leaping and scoring abilities drew comparisons to Vince Carter. By the time he first became eligible in December 2006 at Kansas State, many NBA scouts had him pegged as a potential top-5 pick in the 2007 NBA draft. But then disaster struck. Just seven games into Walker's college career, he ruptured his ACL. Walker struggled to come back. He showed up with a touring American team in Italy at the Reebok Eurocamp and looked slow and overweight. By the time his sophomore season started, Walker was regaining some of his athleticism, but he was still 20 to 30 pounds overweight and struggled to put it together on the court. With the exception of one huge game versus Cal, Walker didn't start turning it on again until late December. By the end of the season, Walker was beginning to look like the player we once knew in high school but still seemed far from becoming a potential lottery pick again. A disappointing NCAA tournament for Kansas State ended most of the talk about Walker's even cracking the first round. However, two months later, a different Walker is on the court. Walker has dropped nearly 30 pounds and has totally rehabbed his knee, and I'm happy to report he is dropping highlight reel dunks by the minute. "He's been an animal in here," Grover said. "He wants it. He's been working really hard, and it's paying off. He's so explosive, and he's always in attack mode." Walker also is working on stabilizing his jump shot. Although his shooting has improved over the years, he doesn't have the needed consistency. Grover also has been working on teaching Walker the nuances of the game. He's been showing him film of Wade and Paul Pierce. Walker spent a considerable amount of his time on Wednesday working on his jab step, for example. Walker told me he's skipping the Orlando pre-draft camp and is hoping to land in workouts against some of the other top small forwards in the draft -- Greene, Joe Alexander, Rush and Douglas-Roberts. If he feels he'll be a first-round pick, he likely will stay in the draft. It will be interesting to see how NBA teams react to Walker. The last time he looked like this, he was considered one of the top players in the draft. Does he have enough time to convince GMs that the old Bill Walker is back? He's off to a scintillating start.</div>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Manhops23 @ Jun 2 2008, 11:39 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>If he slides into the late first early or second round he's the steal of the draft</div> Hes definitely got potential to be a steal. I really didn't like him at the beginning of the season but as he played more games at K-State, got in better shape, got more comfortable, etc. I started to see why he was hyped to much. Dudes a specimen and plays aggressively. Has scoring instincts, gets to the line nice rebounder, and draws a lot of contact. Hes got Corey MAggette type potential. Hes gotta work on his jumpshot but thats a pretty easy fix. He could make some team very happy in the 20-30 range.
I was impressed with how he turned it around, got motivated, and really came back in shape over the past year. That kind of work ethic is always encouraging, especially after seeing how out of shape he had been before that. While the injury prevented him from being that explosive, top-of-the-lottery prospect, there can be a positive dimension, if he no longer takes his athletic ability for granted and continues to work hard at his game. That said, at the Raptors draft workout, he was outshone by Douglas-Roberts and Brandon Rush.
http://mvn.com/nba-cavaliers/2008/06/07/he...nt-to-be-right/ A nice article on MVN about how Danny Ferry should draft him if he's still available. Interesting how he's spent his career being a secondary option to someone (Mayo in HS then Beasley at Kansas St) and how he might just be a great option to be LeBron's number 2. If his stock keeps rising, he probably won't be available for the Cavs, but I'd like to see them take a chance on him, and they might need to in order to show LeBron they're really trying to improve the team to become a Championship contender.
