National Basketball Association

Are the Nets interested in Syracuse big man Rakeem Christmas?

Published Jun. 10, 2015 3:24 p.m. ET

foxsports

The Nets are in the midst of their predraft workouts now, and one of the guys they're seriously considering is former Syracuse big man Rakeem Christmas.

Christmas is one of the older prospects in the draft, but he's a legitimate post-up threat who is a skilled scorer down low, something you're not often going to find in a college kid.

Devin Kharpertian says at The Brooklyn Game that he could be an option come No. 29:

Christmas averaged 17.5 points and 9.1 rebounds per game during his senior season at Syracuse. He's an above-average athlete, but with all Syracuse kids, the question becomes if he can learn to play NBA-style defense after coming out of Cuse's 2-3 zone.

(H/t to Devin Kharpertian of The Brooklyn Game.)

Christmas’s flight from Memphis — where he’d worked out the day before for the Grizzlies — was cancelled Tuesday night without warning due to weather issues, despite what he described as clear skies in Memphis and New York.

The Nets pushed back their workout by around 90 minutes, and Christmas flew out early this morning after sleeping five hours in a shady Memphis motel. “It was one of those raggedy (motels), that the door leads outside,” Christmas said Wednesday at the Nets facility.

“I got out the cab (in front of the motel) and the guy was like, ‘be careful over there.’ I was like, ‘oh God.'”

Christmas said his lack of sleep in an unfamiliar place didn’t affect his workout, and he could be in play for the Nets at either 29 or 41. The team has made a habit of drafting seniors, and Christmas averaged 17.5 points and 9.0 rebounds in 34.3 minutes per game in his senior year, a significant leap in his production from past seasons. He’s projected as a late-first round or mid-second round selection and has been linked to the Nets in mock drafts, though he says he ignores those.

Nets director of player personnel Gregg Polinsky was complimentary of Christmas’s workout and game. “I think his offense (can improve at the next level),” Polinsky said. “I think he is improved. If you look at him, again, what he did his first few years was minimal. What he did as a junior, you saw some defensive ability, shotblocking, but this year, they needed him to score the basketball more, and I think he produced for them.”