As we prep for the 2016 NBA Draft in a mere two weeks, I’ve noticed that some of the buzziest guys we didn’t draft in Slim and I’s (grammar police!) 2016 NBA Mock Draft have some absolutely awesome names. And what do you think of when you hear absolutely awesome male names? Porn stars of course! So I dedicated a little mini-series to the under-the-radar draft day names that could sneak their way into the first round and have some deep league 2016-17 fantasy impact.
To kick this series off – have you ever done the thing where you figure out what “your” porn star name would be? It’s your middle name as your first name, and the street you grew up on as your last name. Mine is “Brock Eastway”. How baller is that?! Share your own names below!
Consistently ranked just outside the first round (yeah, there’s no smooth transition here!), 7’1 Thon Maker has been making some noise recently as a draft day riser. The most recent buzz is the Pistons are apparently raving about the guy, and might consider nabbing him at 18th. Then I saw a recent place with him going 10th in a mock draft… 10th! Ahead of my boy Deyonta Davis! Crazy talk. Pretty big news for a guy that wasn’t even sure he would get declared eligible by the NBA when he announced he wanted to enter the draft on April 3rd. He’s 19, but didn’t play in the NCAA, instead staying at his high school as a “post-graduate” student. Yeah, it’s called failing high school… I dunno how anyone bought that!
Maker is an absolute bean pole. Draft Xpress has him at 7’1, 216 pounds. For half of you reading right now, you immediately feel really fat. Not all of us can be skinny lookers like Slim! At the combine, he kept building on his buzz by having the highest vertical jump (32”) of any player over 6’11 in combine history. Bean pole got leg muscles!
Even crazier is the rampant KG comparison. It’s in that Pistons article above, although it seems like a throwaway comparison that Rotoworld ran with. Maybe Draft Day execs are Rotoworld loyalists. We must protect our crown! Squash the dissenting militia!
Regardless of where he’s drafted, he’s likely spending most, if not all of 2016-17 in the D-League. He’s got some crazy physical tools, but I don’t know if he has the polish to be more than shot blocker, despite the following he has on YouTube as well. But if he does get 15-20 minute playing time at some point, I think he could surprise as 1.0+ block guy and have a John Henson-esque impact for the deeper leagues. Although with the same frustration we had with Henson and how Kidd played him…
So as we’ll wrap with each of these profiles of this series, vote in the poll below!
