MINNEAPOLIS — On May 31, Miles Plumlee was one of a dozen players to work out for the Timberwolves. The Duke center was confident - too confident, some might have thought -- though still projected as a fringe prospect in the early days of workouts.
How he played in front of the general managers gathered at the Target Center seemed almost an afterthought. Plumlee wasn't what people wanted to hear about, not when he'd spent a year playing alongside Austin Rivers, the shooting guard who looked like the Timberwolves' dream if he were to fall as far as No. 18 in the NBA draft.
Three weeks and one trade later, it's Rivers, who? The 18th pick is gone, as of Tuesday morning, sent to Houston for small forward Chase Budinger and the draft rights to Israeli forward Lior Eliyahu. With that, Syracuse center Fab Melo scratched from Tuesday's draft workouts and was replaced with Miles Plumlee.
This time, it made a bit more sense to pay attention to the Duke center.
After the Minnesota workouts, Plumlee's stock began to rise. He played well then, and he's been exceeding expectations since, pushing his name as far up the draft ladder as late in the first round. At the combine, he measured 6-foot-11-3/4 with shoes, and his 7-foot-3/4 wingspan was better than Tyler Zeller's. He's been silencing critics who say he was inconsistent in college, not athletic enough, not NBA caliber.
For a player like Plumlee who's risen so far in many teams' eyes the past month, the process can be even more uncertain. It might seem futile for the Timberwolves to devote so much attention to a player who seems like he's eclipsed their No. 58 overall second-round pick, but nothing is set yet for Plumlee. He might go 27th. He might be picked at the beginning of the second round. He could fall to the end. Or really, his named could be called anywhere in between.
So if the Timberwolves are interested, why not bring him back? Why not make sure everything they saw last month and at the combine was the norm? There's no excuse not to, and Plumlee knows it.
"They might have just wanted to see if the first workout was a fluke," Plumlee said of the return visit.
The Timberwolves are the only team Plumlee has worked out for twice, and he's done his research. He said he already watches Minnesota power forward Kevin Love on television and would enjoy the opportunity to learn from him in person. He recognizes the up-and-coming players, the respected coaching staff. He knows he could play well off point guard Ricky Rubio, he said.
And with every workout, those assurances of talent might ring truer. Plumlee worked a lot on shooting and playing off pick-and-rolls on Tuesday, he said, and he's continuing to prove that he's far more athletic that he was perceived to be just a month ago.
"It's not weird to me," Plumlee said. "It's weird that maybe people didn't think I'd do that well. Coach K has always thought I've been probably one of the best athletes to come through Duke, and I agree with that."
That's not the confidence of a player who's worried about getting drafted. Those are the words of a player who's prepared for draft night, who knows he's going to get his shot. Now, the only question is when.
"I'm not too nervous," Plumlee said. "Going into this, I knew where my stock was at, and I feel like I've done a great job of improving on it. I feel confident going into this that (I'm) possibly a late first-round pick, but if not I think I'll be fine wherever I end up."
If the Timberwolves are truly interested in Plumlee -- and that's still an if -- they may take a trade up in the draft order on Thursday night to land him, or they might just wait and hope he falls as far as their 58th pick. His range is wide enough that there's no way to be certain he won't remain, but it's looking like a longer and longer shot.
Wherever he ends up, Plumlee will likely be a complementary player and more of a rebounder than a shooter. He averaged just 6.6 points per game his senior season, though his 7.1 rebounding averaged was second on the Duke team, behind his younger brother Mason Plumlee.
Miles Plumlee might not be destined to be a star, but he looks right now like a player with a shot at a solid NBA career.
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