<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">John Almanson- He has a little bit of that NBA body. Almanson is a small forward that could clearly play in the post. His shooting isn?t great so if he ever makes it in the NBA, he might end up playing power forward although right now his vision is in Europe. He might have been the best player in the workout. His defense looked better than Blankson?s. He was physical and diving after a lot of loose balls. Almanson was getting most of the blocked shots and rebounds or if he wasn?t rebounding the ball, he was tipping it to his teammate (Emmanuel Dildy). What he?s missing from his game is some pure athleticism and explosiveness. He has some pretty good post moves already, but he?s not the athlete he needs to be in order to make the NBA. European fans should pay close attention to this name though. He could make a big impact within his first three seasons wherever he signs in Europe. He?s got some raw strength to make an impact somewhere. Look for him on the draft rankings next week. Chet Mason- He?s a little bit like Antonio Daniels. He?s athletic and long. Mason got a lot of steals just using his arms and not getting a foul. During the workout, he had a lot of flashy dunks high above the rim. He?s going to get more looks after Moody Bible because of how he played. His shooting is just ok. It wasn?t terrible, but it wasn?t great. He was able to make a lot of pull-up jumpers from about eight feet out and get a few threes here and there. Mason was listed as a point guard but he seems more like shooting guard just because it seems more natural for him to score rather than get creative and set people up to score. If there?s a lockout, Mason will be the one most hurt out of this whole group because he has the most NBA potential. He could be picked up by a team to play summer league if there is one, and he has the talent to play in the NBDL. A lockout will prevent Mason from getting picked up during summer league so it?s naturally going to hurt his chances of making a team. Odartey Blankson- The one thing that popped out about Blankson was how big his hands were. He?s able to get a hand in his man?s face fairly easily because of his hand size. It?s also very obvious that his hands made an impact against bigger players. He had a bit of a mismatch against Mike Wilkinson and Josh Almanson, both who he had to guard. The interesting match-up was against Wilkinson who looked like he had a clear two inches over Blankson even though Blankson is listed as 6-7 and Wilkinson is listed as 6-8. Either Blankson is 6-6 or Wilkinson grew a little bit at Wisconsin and is now 6-9, but it wasn?t recorded. It?s probably the latter. Either way, Blankson looked impressive against him considering Wilkinson doesn?t have problems scoring usually. The next step from here is seeing how good of a defender Blankson is against better offensive players. On the offensive end, Blankson held his own against his defender, but he didn?t do anything great. In general, the feeling out of this is still what a lot of scouts are probably wondering, and that is what position can he play. He was listed in the handout from the workout as a shooting guard or small forward. He played mostly small forward or power forward at college, and he hasn?t shown the ability to fit any of the positions really well. Rory O?Neil- Only player in the second group (besides Almanson who played in both groups) that was impressive. He shot the ball very well considering he?s 6-11. He was making shots out to NBA range, which looked very impressive for a player that big to be hitting shots from that distance. He wasn?t in that many post drills, and he didn?t play in the two-on-two game so it was a little hard to get a read on him. Based on how he did in the drills, he probably has a decent career somewhere in Europe. He won?t the international player that Almanson will probably be, but he can still end up as a role player for a major international team. </div> Source
