Gray's worth unknown
By GUERIN EMIG World Sports Writer
6/28/2006
NORMAN -- Tonight's NBA draft arrives cloaked in mystery. Sixty picks, 60 guesses, according to many who are handicapping the field.
It figures, then, the prospects of Oklahoma product Taj Gray are hazy at best.
Asked where he thought his cli ent might go, Jeff Austin, Gray's agent, said: "I wish I knew. His range is really broad. The earliest he would be considered, I think, would be (by) New Jersey at No. 23. He had really good workouts for them, and they liked him a lot. He could go as low as 45."
Or he might not go at all. Several mock drafts are Gray-less.
Some recall OU's 2005-06 season, the one beginning with Gray being named Big 12 Conference Preseason Player of the Year and ending with the Sooners eliminated one game into the NCAA Tournament and Gray on the All-Big 12 second team.
"At the end of the season, people had some real questions about him," Austin acknowledged.
Others measure Gray closer to 6-7 than the 6-9 OU listed him as.
From Scouts Inc.: "As an undersized power forward, he needs to prove himself."
So that's what Gray has been trying to do the
past several weeks.
He worked out, in Austin's estimation, for a dozen teams. Then he went to Orlando earlier this month for the NBA's official pre-draft camp.
Finally, his stock was headed back up.
"He really helped himself at Orlando and in the individual workouts," Austin said. "He was already in terrific shape when he went into the workouts, and he came in and worked very hard. He really impressed people with his energy, and people thought he was a great kid."
What he needed was some numbers to go with the work ethic and character, numbers a little flashier than the 14 points per game he averaged last season in Norman.
Maybe the 21 points Gray scored midway through his week in Orlando would do it. Rob Reheuser of NBA.com noticed and wrote: "Gray is clearly playing with a chip on his shoulder. . . It's not a stretch to see him make the league as an energy guy, regardless of whether he gets drafted."
Gray, of course, would just as soon change that "whether" to "where." Tonight will tell.
"This draft is really a difficult one to predict from the top all the way down," Austin said. "But one thing I'm confident in, based on feedback from (Gray's) workouts, is regardless of whether he is picked at the end of the first round or somewhere in the second, he'll do well.
"Taj will be an NBA player."
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Guerin Emig 581-8355
[email protected].