Omerhodzic, Sebastiao impress
By Chad Ford
NBA Insider
Send an Email to Chad Ford
Friday, April 23
CLEVELAND -- There are 48 days until the 2004 NBA Draft. With the millions of dollars NBA teams spend on scouting each year, it's hard to believe that, in early May, there still are potential NBA prospects whom the majority of NBA scouts and GMs haven't seen.
Last season, Pavel Podkolzine, Maciej Lampe and Leandro Barbosa took NBA scouting departments by storm around this time. The year before, players like Nene Hilario and Nikoloz Tskitishvili still were flying under the radar around this time.
This year? Say hello to Croatia's Damir Omerhodzic and Brazil's Cleiton Sebastiao. Omerhodzic is an 18-year-old phenom who owns just about every basketball skill imaginable. Sebastiao is a 25-year-old former construction worker who just started playing organized basketball two and half years ago.
The common denominator? Both players left their native countries about a month ago and are working out with trainer Eric Lichter preparing for the NBA draft. Insider watched exclusive workouts of both players Thursday.
Lichter, who along with partner Tim Robertson runs a company called Speed Strength Systems in Cleveland, is the training force behind players such as LeBron James, Nene, Barbosa and another physical freak who you may remember, J.R. Bremer.
His challenge for each player has been totally different.
The Croatian Sensation
Damir Omerhodzic has been hitting the weights in Cleveland.
Omerhodzic showed up in Cleveland a month ago standing 6-foot-11, but weighing just 222 pounds. One NBA executive who had seen him play in a junior tournament a year ago called him "Ethiopian skinny."
The scouting report on him was equally thin. He had spent the last four years playing in Zagreb for Cibona, a Euroleague team that produced Nets' first-round pick Zoran Planinic last year. For the past two years, Omerhodzic has been sitting at the end of the bench getting very little playing time.
The few scouts who had seen him play caught him in junior tournaments. Finding tape on him has been almost impossible. He was described as a sharp-shooting, young Dirk Nowitzki-type, but there was scant evidence to back it up. When his agent, Marc Cornstein, declared him for the draft, most scouts were stunned. How can a skinny kid with little playing experience be ready for the NBA?
For starters, he has erased the "Ethiopian skinny" description. In the space of just under four weeks, Omerhodzic has bulked up to 240. He now owns bulging biceps, ripped abs and thick legs.
"I'd say he's about 150 percent stronger than he was when he came in here," Lichter told Insider. "The kid had never lifted a weight in his life. In just four weeks, he's shown huge improvement, especially in his arms, chest and shoulders. He could easily get up to 250 pounds with a few more weeks of work. But weight can be overrated. The key to this kid is that he's very strong."
Next, drop the "unathletic" tag line that gets pinned on almost every prospect from Europe. Omerhodzic is a great athlete for a 6-foot-11 kid. He already possesses a 35½-inch vertical (LeBron has a 38-inch, for comparison) and loves to play above the rim. The key to Omerhodzic is that he's explosive. He gets off the floor very quickly and can do it again, and again, and again when he needs to. He also has good lateral quickness and is pretty fast getting up and down the court. He's no stiff.
Again, the training over the past few weeks has helped his cause.
"The training they do in Europe is all about conditioning," Lichter said. "It drains the explosiveness out of players. He was already a good athlete when he came here, but his vertical jump has already increased three inches."
What about the basketball part?
Omerhodzic is a smooth player who owns a killer jumper with deep, NBA 3-point range. During several shooting drills, Omerhodzic easily knocked down 10 consecutive NBA 3s at a time. His skills down in the block are emerging, as well. He has great footwork and knows how to back his man down in the paint. He's got a nice hook shot that he can hit with either his left or his right. His leaping ability makes him a natural rebounder, and he showed in the workout during several drills that he isn't afraid of contact.
Omerhodzic is an explosive athlete who loves to play above the rim.
NBA teams have been searching for a Dirk Nowitzki clone ever since Dirk started busting out in Dallas. Omerhodzic comes as close as any young player I've seen from Europe. Darko Milicic, Nene, Jiri Welsch, Alexsandar Pavlovic, Maciej Lampe, Andris Biedrins, Pavel Podkolzine, Tiago Splitter and Kosta Perovic are all interesting and talented NBA prospects, but none of their games were really that similar to Nowitzki's.
Omerhodzic is close, but not exactly there. He isn't the ball-handler Dirk is by any stretch of the imagination. While he certainly can dribble efficiently, he's not cut out of the same point-forward mold. He's not as versatile, either. At this point, he'd be a small forward in the NBA. As he continues to bulk up, he could spend some time at the four. He also possesses small hands, which could come back to haunt him with some NBA teams. Despite being 6-foot-11, he can't comfortably palm the ball.
One negative he has in common with Nowitzki? The few scouting reports that exist on him from Europe claim Omerhodzic is a terrible defender. That was impossible to judge from the workout I attended. His length, athleticism and lateral quickness suggest he's capable of being a good defender. He told me his job in practice each day was to guard former Ohio State star Scoonie Penn. Penn is much quicker than your average NBA three, so if Omerhodzic can pull that off, he should be fine.
Some scouts also have expressed concern about a negative reputation Omerhodzic picked up in Croatia. Depending on who you talk to, he's everything from a party guy to a player who's had difficulty getting along with his coach.
Again, an afternoon spent with the kid isn't enough to make those type of assessments. However, when you hear him tell his story, it's easy to see why he might still be a little rough around the edges.
Omerhodzic's family fled Croatia just after the war started, and he spent most of his formative years living in Sweden along with other refugees. In Sweden, at the age of eight, he befriended one of Sweden's best young hockey players, the Suns' Maciej Lampe.
Both were poor and spent most of their time playing and watching sports. When Omerhodzic saw a flier advertising a basketball clinic, he convinced Lampe to put down the hockey puck and pick up a ball.
"I told him, 'You're too tall to play hockey, but you'd be a great basketball player,' " Omerhodzic told Insider. "We both went to the camp, fell in love with the game and started playing for a young club in Sweden."
The basketball scene in Sweden left a lot to be desired, so both players began looking for other opportunities. Lampe, who was a year older, was discovered by a Spanish scout and left Sweden to play on Real Madrid's cadet team. Omerhodzic didn't receive a similar offer, so he began looking for something on his own. He started looking up basketball teams on the Internet, and when he ran across Cibona's cadet program, he made a risky decision.
A 14-year-old Omerhodzic traveled to Croatia by himself. He knew no one and spoke just a little Croatian. However, he was determined to be a basketball player. After much persuasion and a few workouts, Cibona signed him, and he quickly began making a name for himself in cadet tournaments.
This year, after a second frustrating year sitting on the bench with Cibona's first team, he decided to leave. With the help of Cornstein, he negotiated a buyout and flew to the United States to pursue his dream of becoming an NBA player.
Cornstein knew Omerhodzic needed to hit the weights and thought he'd be a perfect fit with Lichter. The two begin working out a 7:30 each morning, and his sessions often don't end until 7:30 each evening.
"It's been a lot of hard work," Omerhodzic says in almost perfect English (he learned it from teammates in Croatia). "The first three or four days I was like 'What have I done?' I've never lifted weights before, and my body was so sore. But now that I see the results, I think that I will always do this. My game has really improved. That's why I came here."
Inevitably, questions about the NBA will still hang over this kid. Like several other international players in this draft, he has precious little game experience. After the Nuggets drafted Skita so high and he struggled, NBA teams are reluctant to take young phenoms with no practical experience. Wherever Omerhodzic goes, it's going to be a few years before he can be a real contributor to an NBA team.
Still, the NBA loves tall, athletic sharpshooters, and his upside, honestly, is just as high as that of Biedrins, Splitter and Perovic (all have more experience, however).
What does that translate into draft stock? Late lottery? Late first round? Second round? It's really too early to tell, but expect the buzz on him to go through the roof when he works out. I'm moving him up Insider's draft board. My guess is NBA scouts will be doing the same when they get their first look at the new and improved Damir Omerhodzic next week.
The Brazilian Bombshell
If Omerhodzic's problem was strength, Cleiton Sebastiao's problem is polish and exposure. The 7-foot, 280-pound Brazilian big man is one of the biggest and strongest human beings I've ever seen. He has a standing reach of 9-foot-4 inches (to put that into perspective, Yao Ming has a 9-foot-7 inch reach) and the body of an NFL lineman.
"I know people are going to freak when I say this, but this guy is stronger than Shaq," Lichter told Insider. "I trained Nene his first year, and I thought Nene was one of the strongest, most athletic big men ever. This kid is already stronger."
Nene, by the way, would agree with that assessment. About 10 minutes into Sebastiao's workout, Nene showed up at the gym in Cleveland and watched the big fella do his thing.
"Wow, he is so strong," Nene told Insider. "We could use him on the Nuggets. I saw him two years ago, and I can't believe how much he's improved."
Brazilian big man Cleiton Sebastiao is pulled by trainer Eric Lichter in a power band drill.
Later, when the two were talking, Sebastiao made the 6-11, 260-pound Nene look small. That's just hard to believe. Sebastiao has already put two players in the hospital, including big-man trainer Shane Kline-Ruminski.
Where did he come from? That's the question everyone is asking right now. Joe Santos, who works with Nene, found Sebastiao working construction in Brazil about 2½ years ago.
"I asked him, 'Do you play basketball big fella?' " Santos said. "He said no. I said, 'You do now.' "
Santos got him to New York to a small junior college, Genesee. He didn't speak a word of English but quickly picked up the language and the game. Not only did he begin improving on the court immediately, but he also became an honor student.
He bounced around to several more small colleges, then family problems forced him to head back to Brazil. He arrived back in the U.S. five weeks ago and has been working with Lichter ever since.
Strength is Sebastiao's forte. He's naturally strong and just began lifting weights. Lichter claims his pupil already can bench press 185 pounds 24 times (the Chicago pre-draft record, set by J.R. Bremer, is 26). That's amazing for a big man with long arms. He also has unbelievable lower body strength. Lichter put Sebastiao through a power-band drill, where he puts a thick rubber band around Sebastiao's waist and tries to pull the player out of the paint.
The drill is extremely difficult. To explain the drill, Lichter put the band around my waist, told me to get low and then started pulling. I went flying out of the paint almost immediately. Sebastiao put it on next and it was Lichter who went flying.
"I used the thick band we used today on Nene just twice two years ago," Lichter said. "That was a real challenge for Nene. This kid is amazing."
Now here's the scary part. Sebastiao is more than just a bruiser. I watched him in workouts for about an hour, and he has a nice, soft touch around the basket and range on his jumper that extends out about 10 feet. His footwork is great, in part, because he was a soccer player growing up. He can really get up and down the floor and has surprising explosiveness for someone his size. While he's nowhere near the freak athlete that Nene was, he's more athletic than most of the stiffs the NBA throws in the paint. He's not much of a ball-handler, but who wants a guy like this to handle the ball?
Sebatiao's specialty is rebounding and defense. He's very aggressive on both ends of the floor and reminds you of Ben Wallace with his blue-collar work ethic.
"I really love to play defense and work hard," Sebastiao told Insider. "My whole life, I have to work hard to achieve my goals. In construction, in basketball and to learn English in school. I know this is the key to success."
Lichter raves about Sebastiao's work ethic and intelligence. In a draft already filled with freakishly strong, athletic (but extremely raw) big men like Pavel Podkolzine and Peter John Ramos, is Sebastiao really in the mix?
The downside is he's already 25 years old and, like Omerhodzic, doesn't have much game film for NBA scouts to break down. Coyne has been trying to get Sebastiao invited to the Chicago pre-draft camp to show scouts what the kid can do in game situations. Amazingly, NBA head scout Marty Blake so far has declined.
That's stunning. Once NBA scouts get a look at this guy in workouts, every one of them is going to want to see what he looks like in a game situation. The pre-draft camp no doubt will be filled with college players whom scouts have seen 50 times. They can't open a space for a huge kid they haven't seen once?
While no one in Sebastiao's camp believes he'll be a lottery pick, the way Nene was two years ago, once teams get into the second round, they're going to have to give this guy a look. Like Big Ben, he may never score 10 points in a game, but he could put Shaq in the hospital. I know a few teams that might just be interested in that.
Draft Cards
After all the speculation on the high school class of 2004, it looks like a record eight high school players will officially make themselves available in the draft. J.R. Smith, Al Jefferson and Shaun Livingston made the announcement this week, and sources claim Bakersfield big man Robert Swift also will put his name in but won't hire an agent.
How many of them actually will stay in the draft? Dwight Howard, Josh Smith and Sebastian Telfair have hired agents, so they're in. Dorell Wright, Smith, Jefferson, Livingston and Swift are trying to preserve their college eligibility. However, expect most, if not all, to stick. Livingston is a lock for the high lottery, and history says players like that eventually stay in.
Jefferson's stock is on the rise, and there's already talk the Celtics will use on of their three first-round picks (probably No. 15) to select the big man from Arkansas. The team needs a low-post bruiser, and VP Leo Papile is as plugged in to the high school scene as any scout in the country. The only question is, how much different is Jefferson from last year's high school first-rounder, Kendrick Perkins?
Swift has academic issues that will keep him in. Wright and Smith should be impressive enough in workouts to get their stock firmly in the first round. The scouts I've talked to believe all eight will be first-round picks, though Swift's stock is the toughest to gauge.
That leads to the obvious question: Is the collegiate and international draft that bad, or is this class of high school prospects that good? I think the answer is yes on both counts.
Don't expect this to be a trend, however. Scouts claim next year's high school class is among the worst ever and might not produce one draftable player.
The international class also is getting stronger. League sources told Insider on Thursday that French forward Johan Petro has put his name in the draft. Petro, a long, athletic 7-footer playing in Pau, France, hasn't gotten much playing time this year, but he did have several good games in front of NBA scouts in Croatia at a recent junior tournament.
He's a first-round talent with second-round experience. The internationl field is just as crowded as the high school one right now, and it's going to be tough for Petro to crack. Right now six international players appear to be locks for the first round: Andris Biedrins, Pavel Podkolzine, Tiago Splitter, Kosta Perovic, Peja Samardziski and Sergei Monya.
Three others are likely first-round picks: Damir Omerhodzic, Sasha Vujacic and Roko Ukic.
Depending on who stays in the draft, several more could have a shot at the first round if they perform well in workouts. That group includes Ivan Chiriav, Luka Bogdanovic, Anderson Varejao, Peter John Ramos, Ha Seung Jin, Viktor Khryapa and Uros Slokar.
Scouts believe as few as eight and as many as 12 international players will be taken in the first round. That doesn't leave much room for Petro at the moment.
It also doesn't leave much room for American college players trying to sneak into the draft. Right now we know eight college players who are locks for the first round: Emeka Okafor, Luol Deng, Devin Harris, Ben Gordon, Josh Childress, Andre Iguodala, Kris Humphries and Jameer Nelson.
Two others -- Rafael Araujo and David Harrison -- are likely first-rounders. And several others have a shot at the first round, including Luke Jackson, Kirk Snyder, Trevor Ariza, Delonte West and Lawrence Roberts.
Do the math and it's pretty easy to see there isn't room for everyone. If eight high schoolers, six internationals and eight college players are locks for the first round, that leaves seven more spots in the first round. Figure in the three international players and two college players who are likely first-round selections, and you're down to two spots.
Good thing many of these underclassmen and young internationals still have time to get out before it's too late.
By Chad Ford
NBA Insider
Send an Email to Chad Ford
Friday, April 23
CLEVELAND -- There are 48 days until the 2004 NBA Draft. With the millions of dollars NBA teams spend on scouting each year, it's hard to believe that, in early May, there still are potential NBA prospects whom the majority of NBA scouts and GMs haven't seen.
Last season, Pavel Podkolzine, Maciej Lampe and Leandro Barbosa took NBA scouting departments by storm around this time. The year before, players like Nene Hilario and Nikoloz Tskitishvili still were flying under the radar around this time.
This year? Say hello to Croatia's Damir Omerhodzic and Brazil's Cleiton Sebastiao. Omerhodzic is an 18-year-old phenom who owns just about every basketball skill imaginable. Sebastiao is a 25-year-old former construction worker who just started playing organized basketball two and half years ago.
The common denominator? Both players left their native countries about a month ago and are working out with trainer Eric Lichter preparing for the NBA draft. Insider watched exclusive workouts of both players Thursday.
Lichter, who along with partner Tim Robertson runs a company called Speed Strength Systems in Cleveland, is the training force behind players such as LeBron James, Nene, Barbosa and another physical freak who you may remember, J.R. Bremer.
His challenge for each player has been totally different.
The Croatian Sensation
Damir Omerhodzic has been hitting the weights in Cleveland.
Omerhodzic showed up in Cleveland a month ago standing 6-foot-11, but weighing just 222 pounds. One NBA executive who had seen him play in a junior tournament a year ago called him "Ethiopian skinny."
The scouting report on him was equally thin. He had spent the last four years playing in Zagreb for Cibona, a Euroleague team that produced Nets' first-round pick Zoran Planinic last year. For the past two years, Omerhodzic has been sitting at the end of the bench getting very little playing time.
The few scouts who had seen him play caught him in junior tournaments. Finding tape on him has been almost impossible. He was described as a sharp-shooting, young Dirk Nowitzki-type, but there was scant evidence to back it up. When his agent, Marc Cornstein, declared him for the draft, most scouts were stunned. How can a skinny kid with little playing experience be ready for the NBA?
For starters, he has erased the "Ethiopian skinny" description. In the space of just under four weeks, Omerhodzic has bulked up to 240. He now owns bulging biceps, ripped abs and thick legs.
"I'd say he's about 150 percent stronger than he was when he came in here," Lichter told Insider. "The kid had never lifted a weight in his life. In just four weeks, he's shown huge improvement, especially in his arms, chest and shoulders. He could easily get up to 250 pounds with a few more weeks of work. But weight can be overrated. The key to this kid is that he's very strong."
Next, drop the "unathletic" tag line that gets pinned on almost every prospect from Europe. Omerhodzic is a great athlete for a 6-foot-11 kid. He already possesses a 35½-inch vertical (LeBron has a 38-inch, for comparison) and loves to play above the rim. The key to Omerhodzic is that he's explosive. He gets off the floor very quickly and can do it again, and again, and again when he needs to. He also has good lateral quickness and is pretty fast getting up and down the court. He's no stiff.
Again, the training over the past few weeks has helped his cause.
"The training they do in Europe is all about conditioning," Lichter said. "It drains the explosiveness out of players. He was already a good athlete when he came here, but his vertical jump has already increased three inches."
What about the basketball part?
Omerhodzic is a smooth player who owns a killer jumper with deep, NBA 3-point range. During several shooting drills, Omerhodzic easily knocked down 10 consecutive NBA 3s at a time. His skills down in the block are emerging, as well. He has great footwork and knows how to back his man down in the paint. He's got a nice hook shot that he can hit with either his left or his right. His leaping ability makes him a natural rebounder, and he showed in the workout during several drills that he isn't afraid of contact.
Omerhodzic is an explosive athlete who loves to play above the rim.
NBA teams have been searching for a Dirk Nowitzki clone ever since Dirk started busting out in Dallas. Omerhodzic comes as close as any young player I've seen from Europe. Darko Milicic, Nene, Jiri Welsch, Alexsandar Pavlovic, Maciej Lampe, Andris Biedrins, Pavel Podkolzine, Tiago Splitter and Kosta Perovic are all interesting and talented NBA prospects, but none of their games were really that similar to Nowitzki's.
Omerhodzic is close, but not exactly there. He isn't the ball-handler Dirk is by any stretch of the imagination. While he certainly can dribble efficiently, he's not cut out of the same point-forward mold. He's not as versatile, either. At this point, he'd be a small forward in the NBA. As he continues to bulk up, he could spend some time at the four. He also possesses small hands, which could come back to haunt him with some NBA teams. Despite being 6-foot-11, he can't comfortably palm the ball.
One negative he has in common with Nowitzki? The few scouting reports that exist on him from Europe claim Omerhodzic is a terrible defender. That was impossible to judge from the workout I attended. His length, athleticism and lateral quickness suggest he's capable of being a good defender. He told me his job in practice each day was to guard former Ohio State star Scoonie Penn. Penn is much quicker than your average NBA three, so if Omerhodzic can pull that off, he should be fine.
Some scouts also have expressed concern about a negative reputation Omerhodzic picked up in Croatia. Depending on who you talk to, he's everything from a party guy to a player who's had difficulty getting along with his coach.
Again, an afternoon spent with the kid isn't enough to make those type of assessments. However, when you hear him tell his story, it's easy to see why he might still be a little rough around the edges.
Omerhodzic's family fled Croatia just after the war started, and he spent most of his formative years living in Sweden along with other refugees. In Sweden, at the age of eight, he befriended one of Sweden's best young hockey players, the Suns' Maciej Lampe.
Both were poor and spent most of their time playing and watching sports. When Omerhodzic saw a flier advertising a basketball clinic, he convinced Lampe to put down the hockey puck and pick up a ball.
"I told him, 'You're too tall to play hockey, but you'd be a great basketball player,' " Omerhodzic told Insider. "We both went to the camp, fell in love with the game and started playing for a young club in Sweden."
The basketball scene in Sweden left a lot to be desired, so both players began looking for other opportunities. Lampe, who was a year older, was discovered by a Spanish scout and left Sweden to play on Real Madrid's cadet team. Omerhodzic didn't receive a similar offer, so he began looking for something on his own. He started looking up basketball teams on the Internet, and when he ran across Cibona's cadet program, he made a risky decision.
A 14-year-old Omerhodzic traveled to Croatia by himself. He knew no one and spoke just a little Croatian. However, he was determined to be a basketball player. After much persuasion and a few workouts, Cibona signed him, and he quickly began making a name for himself in cadet tournaments.
This year, after a second frustrating year sitting on the bench with Cibona's first team, he decided to leave. With the help of Cornstein, he negotiated a buyout and flew to the United States to pursue his dream of becoming an NBA player.
Cornstein knew Omerhodzic needed to hit the weights and thought he'd be a perfect fit with Lichter. The two begin working out a 7:30 each morning, and his sessions often don't end until 7:30 each evening.
"It's been a lot of hard work," Omerhodzic says in almost perfect English (he learned it from teammates in Croatia). "The first three or four days I was like 'What have I done?' I've never lifted weights before, and my body was so sore. But now that I see the results, I think that I will always do this. My game has really improved. That's why I came here."
Inevitably, questions about the NBA will still hang over this kid. Like several other international players in this draft, he has precious little game experience. After the Nuggets drafted Skita so high and he struggled, NBA teams are reluctant to take young phenoms with no practical experience. Wherever Omerhodzic goes, it's going to be a few years before he can be a real contributor to an NBA team.
Still, the NBA loves tall, athletic sharpshooters, and his upside, honestly, is just as high as that of Biedrins, Splitter and Perovic (all have more experience, however).
What does that translate into draft stock? Late lottery? Late first round? Second round? It's really too early to tell, but expect the buzz on him to go through the roof when he works out. I'm moving him up Insider's draft board. My guess is NBA scouts will be doing the same when they get their first look at the new and improved Damir Omerhodzic next week.
The Brazilian Bombshell
If Omerhodzic's problem was strength, Cleiton Sebastiao's problem is polish and exposure. The 7-foot, 280-pound Brazilian big man is one of the biggest and strongest human beings I've ever seen. He has a standing reach of 9-foot-4 inches (to put that into perspective, Yao Ming has a 9-foot-7 inch reach) and the body of an NFL lineman.
"I know people are going to freak when I say this, but this guy is stronger than Shaq," Lichter told Insider. "I trained Nene his first year, and I thought Nene was one of the strongest, most athletic big men ever. This kid is already stronger."
Nene, by the way, would agree with that assessment. About 10 minutes into Sebastiao's workout, Nene showed up at the gym in Cleveland and watched the big fella do his thing.
"Wow, he is so strong," Nene told Insider. "We could use him on the Nuggets. I saw him two years ago, and I can't believe how much he's improved."
Brazilian big man Cleiton Sebastiao is pulled by trainer Eric Lichter in a power band drill.
Later, when the two were talking, Sebastiao made the 6-11, 260-pound Nene look small. That's just hard to believe. Sebastiao has already put two players in the hospital, including big-man trainer Shane Kline-Ruminski.
Where did he come from? That's the question everyone is asking right now. Joe Santos, who works with Nene, found Sebastiao working construction in Brazil about 2½ years ago.
"I asked him, 'Do you play basketball big fella?' " Santos said. "He said no. I said, 'You do now.' "
Santos got him to New York to a small junior college, Genesee. He didn't speak a word of English but quickly picked up the language and the game. Not only did he begin improving on the court immediately, but he also became an honor student.
He bounced around to several more small colleges, then family problems forced him to head back to Brazil. He arrived back in the U.S. five weeks ago and has been working with Lichter ever since.
Strength is Sebastiao's forte. He's naturally strong and just began lifting weights. Lichter claims his pupil already can bench press 185 pounds 24 times (the Chicago pre-draft record, set by J.R. Bremer, is 26). That's amazing for a big man with long arms. He also has unbelievable lower body strength. Lichter put Sebastiao through a power-band drill, where he puts a thick rubber band around Sebastiao's waist and tries to pull the player out of the paint.
The drill is extremely difficult. To explain the drill, Lichter put the band around my waist, told me to get low and then started pulling. I went flying out of the paint almost immediately. Sebastiao put it on next and it was Lichter who went flying.
"I used the thick band we used today on Nene just twice two years ago," Lichter said. "That was a real challenge for Nene. This kid is amazing."
Now here's the scary part. Sebastiao is more than just a bruiser. I watched him in workouts for about an hour, and he has a nice, soft touch around the basket and range on his jumper that extends out about 10 feet. His footwork is great, in part, because he was a soccer player growing up. He can really get up and down the floor and has surprising explosiveness for someone his size. While he's nowhere near the freak athlete that Nene was, he's more athletic than most of the stiffs the NBA throws in the paint. He's not much of a ball-handler, but who wants a guy like this to handle the ball?
Sebatiao's specialty is rebounding and defense. He's very aggressive on both ends of the floor and reminds you of Ben Wallace with his blue-collar work ethic.
"I really love to play defense and work hard," Sebastiao told Insider. "My whole life, I have to work hard to achieve my goals. In construction, in basketball and to learn English in school. I know this is the key to success."
Lichter raves about Sebastiao's work ethic and intelligence. In a draft already filled with freakishly strong, athletic (but extremely raw) big men like Pavel Podkolzine and Peter John Ramos, is Sebastiao really in the mix?
The downside is he's already 25 years old and, like Omerhodzic, doesn't have much game film for NBA scouts to break down. Coyne has been trying to get Sebastiao invited to the Chicago pre-draft camp to show scouts what the kid can do in game situations. Amazingly, NBA head scout Marty Blake so far has declined.
That's stunning. Once NBA scouts get a look at this guy in workouts, every one of them is going to want to see what he looks like in a game situation. The pre-draft camp no doubt will be filled with college players whom scouts have seen 50 times. They can't open a space for a huge kid they haven't seen once?
While no one in Sebastiao's camp believes he'll be a lottery pick, the way Nene was two years ago, once teams get into the second round, they're going to have to give this guy a look. Like Big Ben, he may never score 10 points in a game, but he could put Shaq in the hospital. I know a few teams that might just be interested in that.
Draft Cards
After all the speculation on the high school class of 2004, it looks like a record eight high school players will officially make themselves available in the draft. J.R. Smith, Al Jefferson and Shaun Livingston made the announcement this week, and sources claim Bakersfield big man Robert Swift also will put his name in but won't hire an agent.
How many of them actually will stay in the draft? Dwight Howard, Josh Smith and Sebastian Telfair have hired agents, so they're in. Dorell Wright, Smith, Jefferson, Livingston and Swift are trying to preserve their college eligibility. However, expect most, if not all, to stick. Livingston is a lock for the high lottery, and history says players like that eventually stay in.
Jefferson's stock is on the rise, and there's already talk the Celtics will use on of their three first-round picks (probably No. 15) to select the big man from Arkansas. The team needs a low-post bruiser, and VP Leo Papile is as plugged in to the high school scene as any scout in the country. The only question is, how much different is Jefferson from last year's high school first-rounder, Kendrick Perkins?
Swift has academic issues that will keep him in. Wright and Smith should be impressive enough in workouts to get their stock firmly in the first round. The scouts I've talked to believe all eight will be first-round picks, though Swift's stock is the toughest to gauge.
That leads to the obvious question: Is the collegiate and international draft that bad, or is this class of high school prospects that good? I think the answer is yes on both counts.
Don't expect this to be a trend, however. Scouts claim next year's high school class is among the worst ever and might not produce one draftable player.
The international class also is getting stronger. League sources told Insider on Thursday that French forward Johan Petro has put his name in the draft. Petro, a long, athletic 7-footer playing in Pau, France, hasn't gotten much playing time this year, but he did have several good games in front of NBA scouts in Croatia at a recent junior tournament.
He's a first-round talent with second-round experience. The internationl field is just as crowded as the high school one right now, and it's going to be tough for Petro to crack. Right now six international players appear to be locks for the first round: Andris Biedrins, Pavel Podkolzine, Tiago Splitter, Kosta Perovic, Peja Samardziski and Sergei Monya.
Three others are likely first-round picks: Damir Omerhodzic, Sasha Vujacic and Roko Ukic.
Depending on who stays in the draft, several more could have a shot at the first round if they perform well in workouts. That group includes Ivan Chiriav, Luka Bogdanovic, Anderson Varejao, Peter John Ramos, Ha Seung Jin, Viktor Khryapa and Uros Slokar.
Scouts believe as few as eight and as many as 12 international players will be taken in the first round. That doesn't leave much room for Petro at the moment.
It also doesn't leave much room for American college players trying to sneak into the draft. Right now we know eight college players who are locks for the first round: Emeka Okafor, Luol Deng, Devin Harris, Ben Gordon, Josh Childress, Andre Iguodala, Kris Humphries and Jameer Nelson.
Two others -- Rafael Araujo and David Harrison -- are likely first-rounders. And several others have a shot at the first round, including Luke Jackson, Kirk Snyder, Trevor Ariza, Delonte West and Lawrence Roberts.
Do the math and it's pretty easy to see there isn't room for everyone. If eight high schoolers, six internationals and eight college players are locks for the first round, that leaves seven more spots in the first round. Figure in the three international players and two college players who are likely first-round selections, and you're down to two spots.
Good thing many of these underclassmen and young internationals still have time to get out before it's too late.
