The Milwaukee Bucks continued their pre-draft workouts bringing in six prospects for a closer look on Friday, most notably including North Carolina guard Marcus Paige.
Does NCAA March Madness heroism translate into draft stock? Marcus Paige sure hopes so. Paige hit a dramatic last-second shot in the NCAA Championship game, but unfortunately his North Carolina Tar Heels didn’t get the win.
Paige is one of a group of six draft prospects that headed to Milwaukee to work out for the Milwaukee Bucks. Joining him on Friday were Malik Newman, Sheldon McClellan, James Webb III, Perry Ellis and Zach Auguste.
None of those prospects are projected to go in the first round, so the Bucks look to do some research on sleepers they can target with their two second-round picks this season.
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Stealing some talent in the latter round of the NBA Draft is a great way to build a deep team without breaking the bank, and every NBA owner prefers to ball on a budget if possible. There are certainly some talented players that came to Milwaukee on Friday, even if not all of them end up being drafted.
Indeed, according to DraftExpress’ latest mock draft only Newman will end being drafted by a team, and he isn’t projected to be selected until the 52nd overall pick. These workouts have a huge effect on draft stock though, as teams can become enamored with a prospect.
Who worked out and what do you need to know? Let’s help you to get some answers.
Next: Marcus Paige
Marcus Paige
Guard – 6’1″
It’s pretty surprising to me that DraftExpress doesn’t have Marcus Paige being drafted by anybody just yet. Paige can play ball at the point guard position, plus he made one of the craziest shots anybody has ever seen.
Paige’s resume is more than just one shot, though. He’s had a strong career with the Tar Heels, including a great sophomore season that saw Paige average 17.5 points, 4.2 assists, 3.2 rebounds and 1.5 steals in 35.6 minutes per game.
He played slightly less minutes per game in his senior season, and Paige’s numbers dropped accordingly. He averaged 12.6 points, 3.7 assists, 2.5 rebounds and 1.1 steals in 31.6 minutes per game this past season.
One part of Paige’s game that must intrigue the Bucks is his shooting talent. Paige has taken at least six threes per game for the last three seasons, and he’s a career 37.5 percent three-point shooter with North Carolina.
Paige’s height and age are likely causing his stock to drop so severely. He stands just 6’1″, and no player in ACC history played as many collegiate minutes as Marcus Paige, who logged 4570 of them. That’s a lot of miles for a rookie to have before ever hitting an NBA floor.
Next: Malik Newman
Malik Newman
Guard – 6’3″
Continuing the trend of working out shooters, the Milwaukee Bucks brought Malik Newman in as part of their pre-draft workout on Friday. Newman is alone among this group in that he’s a freshman, whereas each of the other prospects on Friday was either a junior or senior.
Newman is a shooter through and through. He actually attempted 38 more three-pointers than two-pointers in his freshman year with Mississippi State, which goes to show how much Newman likes to shoot.
He averaged 11.3 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.2 assists in 27.7 minutes per game at Mississippi State last year. Nagging injuries forced Newman to miss a few games and play fewer minutes when he did return to action, which lowered those numbers a bit.
Newman is a combo guard, but at just 6’3″ he might be too small to play at shooting guard against some teams. His 37.9 percent shooting from beyond the arc shows he can make shots, but he’ll need to add something else to his game to carve out a spot in the NBA.
Next: Sheldon McClellan
Sheldon McClellan
Guard – 6’5″
Sheldon McClellan has been waiting a long time to take a shot at getting into the NBA. McClellan just finished his super senior season with Miami after being forced to sit out a year after he transferred from Texas to Miami.
McClellan’s per game scoring has grown from year to year, ultimately resulting in a senior year where he averaged 16.3 points, 3.2 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.0 steals in 32.9 minutes per game.
After being a decent three-point shooter for his first three NCAA seasons McClellan took a huge stride forward in 2015-16, making 40.6 percent of his 3.9 threes attempted per game. McClellan’s sudden spike in efficiency has to have teams wondering if he just peaked at the right time, or if he’s really a talented shooter they can add to their roster.
McClellan is more than just a shooter, as evidenced by some of his highlights in the video above. He has serious bounce, and he can get up and play above the rim. McClellan shot 56.8 percent on two-point attempts, proving he’s more than a one-trick pony.
His age and lack of renown surely are working against him, but McClellan might be able to get a spot with a team by killing workouts like the one in Milwaukee on Friday. He doesn’t seem to have any lack of talent on the offensive end.
Next: James Webb III
James Webb III
Forward – 6’9″
Poor James Webb. His numbers from last season look great: Webb averaged 11.2 points and 8.0 rebounds per game while hitting 67.7 percent of his twos and 40.9 percent of his threes. Those are legit stretch four statistics.
The NBA loves stretch fours right now. Unfortunately for Webb, he un-stretched during his last college season. Webb made just 24.8 percent of his threes, despite taking 0.1 less attempt per game.
Webb averaged 15.8 points, 9.1 rebounds, 1.1 assists, 1.6 steals and 0.6 blocks in 30.5 minutes per game last season. He can clearly play, even if his shooting has fallen off drastically. Webb loves to work inside and dunk the basketball, and he’s got the height and athleticism to do so often.
Still, the sudden lack of shooting doubtlessly has hurt Webb’s draft stock. There’s no guarantee that he won’t find his shot again, but James Webb is far from a three-point shooter right now.
In a pace-and-space obsessed NBA, that’s a problem. Webb is still a gifted forward, but he’ll have a harder time convincing teams to spend a draft pick on him if he can’t score from outside as well as inside.
Next: Perry Ellis
Perry Ellis
Forward – 6’8″
Perry Ellis, like Marcus Paige, just got done putting in work at a prestigious basketball college for the last four seasons. Ellis spent his college days at Kansas and was a workhorse for the Jayhawks, missing just two of Kansas’ games over his last three years there.
Continuing a common thread in this workout, Ellis can shoot a bit. He took just 130 three-point attempts over his four NCAA seasons, but took 1.7 threes a game last season and hit 43.8 percent of them.
Ellis has never recorded a season with a three-point percentage of less than 39.1, which is impressive even given the small sample size. His senior year has been his best one yet statistically, as Ellis averaged 16.9 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 30.3 minutes per game.
Like most of the players who traveled to Milwaukee on Friday, Ellis is polished. He had a distinguished four-year career at Kansas, and grew into a true stretch four during that time.
Ellis is athletic and can get to the rim. He might be slightly undersized for the power forward position at 6’8″, but if he can manage defending other NBA fours Ellis has the potential to secure a spot in the Association for himself.
Next: Zach Auguste
Zach Auguste
Forward – 6’10”
Zach Auguste wraps up a group of mostly experienced players with strong collegiate careers. Auguste worked his way up into the Notre Dame rotation, ultimately getting 29.4 minutes on a pretty good Fighting Irish team his senior year.
Auguste is the lone non-shooter in this group. He missed the only three-point attempt he took in college, and that was some two years ago. He’s a typical center, and a pretty good one at that.
Auguste averaged 14.0 points, 10.7 rebounds, 1.1 assists and 1.1 blocks per game last season. He hit 56 percent of his shots, and was Notre Dame’s leading scorer and rebounder per 40 minutes.
He’s a little small for a traditional center, but what Auguste lacks in size he makes up for in athleticism. Auguste can move for a center, and he’s got great put-back ability.
The big stage is nothing new for Zach Auguste, who has shined in various March Madness games over the past two seasons with Notre Dame.
Next: Melo Trimble Headlines Milwaukee Bucks Pre-Draft Workouts
We’ll check back in with the rundown on more workout attendees in the coming days and weeks.