A Look At ACC Players And The NBA Draft

Here’s a look at ACC draft prospects from Mike Waters of the Syracuse paper.

He breaks it down into the guys who have already declared, those who are testing the waters, as they say, and those who yet to announce.

For Duke, he obviously has Tre Jones and Cassius Stanley in the first group and puts Vernon Carey, Wendell Moore and Matthew Hurt in the last one.

Jone is seen as the #38 pick in ESPN’s mock draft while Stanley clocks in at #48. Carey, who has yet to declare of course, is see at #27 which puts him on the fringe of the first round.

Moore and Hurt are list as undrafted which is about right.

We could see Moore developing into a solid NBA player. First he works on defense which not everyone does. Second, he keeps getting more versatile. And third, his teams tend to win. That might sound like a trivial thing but they do. He’s a winner, and smart franchises, like Boston and San Antonio, look for winners. So does Duke, for that matter.

As for Hurt, we’ve only seen a fraction of his potential. Midway through this past season, Duke’s weight training kicked in and we saw the benefits in that rebound he ripped down at the end of the Florida State game that was such a critical factor in Duke’s win. Next year, if he weighs say 235, we’ll see a very different Matthew Hurt.