ATLANTA -- Tyshawn Taylor changed.
The lively, energetic Kansas guard who helped propel his team to the Final Four last season is gone. In his place is another Tyshawn Taylor, an exhausted character, still talkative but notably slumping after his final private workout for an NBA team.
He doesn’t shy away from it. His fatigue is a given, an expected condition after 12 workouts in diferrent locations across the country.
“I think the more workouts I did, over time, I wore down. I think for the first couple of workouts I came in, I was ready, I was in great shape, I was excited,” Taylor said. “Then, after a while, after all the travelling, it just kinda wears on you. I found myself, like 30 to 45 minutes through a workout getting tired when the other times I would go the entire workout and be like, ‘Is this it? Are we done?’”
The fact is that a player working out for the Hornets on June 16 could appear much better than the same player working out for the Hawks on June 26. Without proper context, such timing could potentially hurt a player’s draft stock.
It sounds like a trivial matter of days. If anything, one might assume that working out closer to the NBA Draft date would leave a more memorable performance for the coach or executives observing.
But that’s in a vacuum.
Thousands of airplane miles have to be considered. There are long, uncomfortable nights in hotel beds entrapped in brand new cities. There’s the stress of hundreds of thousands of dollars riding on a microcosm of athletic ability. There are the tests and the trials, the sprints and the vertical jumps, the rumors and the pep talks.
“It’s just a battle. You’re close to the end and you know it … your legs are getting tired, mind is getting tired, but you gotta fight through it,” Marquette forward Jae Crowder said. “That’s what a lot of guys are doing right now.”
Such is the price to pay to be considered for an NBA rosters.
Crowder talked after his 10th and final workout. Some players go through as many as 15 or 20 such tests. For the high-end prospects like Kentucky’s Anthony Davis and Taylor’s Kansas teammate Thomas Robinson, these workouts mean very little in the grand scheme of things. A roster spot will find those guys. Period.
But for small school prospects or even overlooked college stars – those battling for second round hopes and dreams – context can mean everything.
“It definitely wears on you, but this is part of the NBA life, you know? You have a game, you travel the next day, you’re off to the next city, so I just kinda have to get used to it,” Taylor said.
Hawks coach Larry Drew said that teams take into consideration at what point in the workout circuit guys are on. It’s a measure of opinion for coaches and executives. How tired should a player be at this stage of the process? Is he injured, banged up or just flat out overspent?
For most, it’s a constant learning process.
“I clearly remember back when I was with Washington, when we brought [Dwayne] Wade in and worked him out, and it wasn’t a great workout,” Drew said. “But it was like his 16th workout. So you have to take that into consideration with these guys coming in here.”
If there is one positive to come from the repetitive routine, many of these players might have some free flights to a destination of his choice in the future. That’s a small consolation, but some will accept it gladly.
“I racked up my SkyMiles, I know that,” Crowder said, laughing, sweat bouncing off the gym floor.
The little things: Tony Mitchell has witnessed his share of ups and downs over the past few months. He's hoping that Thursday night will be another step towards redemption.
Mitchell's junior season at Alabama, one in which he was one of the team's leading scorers and rebounders, was marred by an end-of-the-season suspension that caused him to miss the final 11 games and sent the Crimson Tide tumbling to a first-round exit from the NCAA Tournament.
Now, Mitchell is carrying himself through private workouts with NBA teams, his superior athletic ability still on full display, trying to overcome a reputation of immaturity.
"I just wiped my slate clean, cleared my head, focused on the task at hand. Now, I'm just trying to get drafted," he said. "It was really tough knowing that my team needed me. But stuff had went down and I couldn't play. It was kind of hard, but it was also a learning lesson for things to come on the next level -- things you can't do."
The 6-foot 6 forward averaged 13.1 points and seven rebounds per game last season, leading the Crimson Tide to a 15-7 overall record. But then, as his coach Anthony Grant referenced, an accumulation of little things began adding up for Mitchell. Soon, an indefinite suspension became a season-ending one.
The Crimson Tide finished the season on a 6-5 run and lost to Creighton by one point in the round of 64. Tony Mitchell is worth, at least, two points.
"He had the ability to make plays, he’s a big-time competitor. So I think those things, certainly, we missed," Grant said during Monday's SEC coaches teleconference.
Mitchell now hopes he won’t miss his chance — perhaps his best shot — at pursuing the most adult of basketball aspirations.
NBA teams know the talent is there. They can see it, clear as day.
Tony Mitchell just has to find a way to prove he's grown up.
Jurassic Paint: There were stretches in the NBA Playoffs where the tallest player on the floor measured in under 6-foot-9. No, not the 1960 NBA Playoffs. The 2012 version.
If one were to scour through some of the league's top teams and players, it would appear the traditional big man is going the way of the dinosaur.
The NBA is getting quicker, more explosive. Taller players drift towards the perimeter. Shorter players exercise their freedom to roam the paint.
And yet, the Hawks are projected to be in the market for another sizable body, working out the likes of centers Festus Ezeli and Fab Melo the weekend before the draft. With so many elite teams getting smaller, why not play follow the leader?
"The counter to that is to make teams match up to you. I think there's always going to be a premium on big guys," Dave Pendergraft, the Hawks assistant GM and director of player personnel, said. "The fact that there's not as many as there used to be, the tall guys now when they first start playing basketball they become perimeter players. They learn how to dribble, shoot and pass as opposed to playing with their back to the basket."
Ezeli and Melo learned no such skills coming up through the youth ranks.
Both are international products — Ezeli hailing from Nigeria, Melo from Brazil — so their strengths were developed much later in life, after they had hit their growth spurts. Ezeli, a Vanderbilt product, sees no problem with this "old-school" mentality.
"I'm a traditional big man, back-to-the-basket guy … I'm a defensive player. I block shots, I guard ball screens," he said. "The offensive part is an added bonus. They haven't really seen it, so when I got out to teams and show them what I've got, I've got a little bit of an added bonus there."
Melo is even less likely to find himself straying too far from the rim.
The Syracuse post player moves his feet well and blocks shots. His strong finishes at the basket are a tribute to his athleticism. He's even improving his hands, the appendages NBA executives were most wary of his freshman season for the Orange.
"I think the thing that improved the most, I asked him to bring me a bottle of water during their break," Pendergaft said with a laugh. "He said, 'I would throw it to you but I was wondering about your hands.' I said, 'Well, they were better than yours were.' … Now you don't cringe every time you throw the ball in the post."
Traditional big men may indeed be disappearing from modern lineups, but don't tell teams like the Hawks.
Those teams think there’s a catch.
Bring it on home: Jae Crowder enjoyed a meteoric rise through collegiate ranks, but a slow, steady fall felt just right this time.
Crowder, a graduate of Villa Rica High School 45 minutes west of Atlanta, made sure the Hawks were the final workout on his busy pre-draft schedule. Standing in the Hawks practice gym Saturday afternoon, shoulders heaving from wind sprints, Crowder was more than happy to talk to anyone willing to listen.
He was comfortable.
He was home.
“I wanted to end [my schedule of workouts] here and see my family,” he said. “I haven’t seen them since Christmas. I just wanted to end it here and have a good feel for my hometown team and see what they look for and try to give it my all.”
Crowder is a bit undersized for his skill set – a 6-foot-6 player who predominantly played in the post at Marquette – but no one can argue with his production. After being named co-Player of the Year in Georgia by the Times-Georgian, Crowder went from National Junior College Player of the Year to Division I starter to Big East Player of the Year in four years. In short, he exceeded expectations at every stop.
NBA teams are now trying to decipher if he has one more surprise up his sleeve.
“Jae Crowder is a guy we really like a lot, and it’s good seeing him up close,” Drew said. “I’d seen a lot of him up at Marquette and I’ve been watching some Synergy and some game footage on him. He’s very intriguing, very intriguing.”
For now, Crowder is simply intrigued to be home. It’s been a long journey since he first left Villa Rica.
And, with the NBA Draft just days away, the Marquette forward has his heart set on hearing David Stern or Adam Silver coupling one team’s name with his: The Hawks.
“That’s that dream, that’s that dream team you always thought about playing for,” Crowder said. “Back when Josh Smith first got here I was in high school, you know. I used to come to the games and that’s what I looked up to – the Hawks. It’d be a dream come true if I do get chosen.”
Dime a dozen: Scott Machado is shooting up draft boards, and the Hawks might employ his biggest supporter.
Pendergraft seemed enamored with the Iona point guard following his workout on June 23, lauding him for his innate passing skills that have caught the eye of so many around the league.
“In my opinion, he is as good at getting the rebound, turning, surveying the court and passing ahead, he’s as good as anybody collegiately than I can remember seeing,” Pendergraft said. “He is like a football quarterback, an NFL quarterback. When he gets that outlet pass, I mean he can see ahead, throw ahead, put different touches on the ball as well as anybody I have ever, ever seen.”
Machado is considered a notch below the draft’s top point guards – names like Damien Lillard, Kendall Marshall and Marquis Teague – but the drop-off is not due to his ability to dish the ball. He led the NCAA in assists his senior year by averaging 9.9 per game.
So maybe size plays a factor. Maybe his mid-major status hurts his stock. Regardless, he has earned a fan in Atlanta.
“That team, I was telling [Hawks assistant] Bob Bender today, Iona netted the ball and got a bucket on the other end as good as any team collegiately I’ve ever seen … And Machado is the reason,” Pendergraft said. “In my opinion, he’s one of the best passers in college basketball, if not the best.”
Stuck in the Middle(ton): Josh Powell didn’t warn his cousin about a thing.
He didn’t warn him about any of the quirks or tendencies of his former coach, Larry Drew. He didn’t warn him about which media members to avoid.
Nothing.
“I need to ask him. He didn’t give me any of that stuff,” Khris Middleton said.
Middleton is a 6-foot-6 NBA Draft prospect out of Texas A&M, heralded as a lanky sharpshooter coming off knee injuries. Draft pundits claim if he came out last year, he’d have been a first round pick. There are fewer certainties nowadays.
But he does have his cousin, former Hawks and Lakers big man Josh Powell, to call upon for advice throughout the process.
“I talk to him a lot. He just gives me confidence and advice on how to live and how to take care of myself,” Middleton said. “He just tells me, ‘Take it one day at a time. It’s a once in a lifetime experience, enjoy it.’
Next time, when it comes to former coaches and teams, Powell will be expected to pull some more weight for his younger family member.
Family matters: Pedigree matters in sports, and not just the genetic aspect that bestows talent upon certain individuals from the outset.
There’s the on-court training – the skills, the moves, the little intricacies invisible to the untrained eye. Then there’s the mentality. That’s a learned skill, too. How does a player compose himself in certain situations? How educated are his decisions relating to sports on and off the court?
Often times, a parent who has gone through the professional sports process can serve as a helpful crutch to lean on during these times.
“Without him, I probably wouldn’t be here. He’s helping me out,” Crowder said of his father, Corey, who played for the Spurs and Jazz in the 1990s. “I talked to him every day, him and Buzz Williams, my head coach at Marquette, those are the two guys I look up to … I’ve had a lot of good people behind me helping me out, and without them it’d be real tough.”
Jeffrey Taylor, a Vanderbilt swingman, grew up in Sweden due to his father’s basketball career overseas. He came to the United States when he was 16, a “culture-shock” for him, but his father has made sure the NBA provides no such jolt by offering advice and support.
“He’s kinda been there for me throughout my whole basketball career,” Taylor said.
In one of the final draft workouts the Hawks conducted, Washington guard Tony Wroten Jr., attended.
His father, Tony, Sr., could not offer any NBA-specific advice. He could not introduce his son to NBA coaches. His son did not have a cousin in the league to call on.
But professional sports are professional sports, and Tony Wroten Sr., played in the NFL for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
“He was real strict on me. When I was younger, I didn’t understand why, but now that I’m close to my dream I understand. He always helped me become who I am now,” Wroten, Jr. said. “He just made sure I stayed on it. He made sure I was dedicated to whatever sport I wanted to play.”
Such advice does come at a price, though. Bragging rights are hard to come by when a loss to the family patriarch in a pickup game is never out of the question.
“He still can shoot. He don’t move as much, but if he gets spot shots they still can fall,” Crowder said, smiling. “I think that’s just repetition for him. He gets in that groove and he can still make shots at 42 years old.”
