NBA Draft will be a wait-and-see night for those with UF ties
Wednesday, June 24, 2015 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- The Florida basketball folks will be locked into Thursday night's NBA Draft, which may or may not yield a player with ties to the Gators or new coach Michael White.
So put on a pot of coffee and throw back a Red Bull.
If Michael Frazier II is going to hear his named called, it figures to be deep into the proceedings.
Frazier (right), a deadly 3-point shooter in his three seasons spotting up for the Gators, raised many an eyebrow when he opted to forgo his senior season and declare for the draft as an underclassman in April. His decision, on the heels of a junior year that marked his worst shooting performance of his career (38 percent vs his 43.5 career figures), went against the advice of then-Coach Billy Donovan, but Frazier was undeterred. He was convinced he could make a mark in pre-draft workouts or, at worst, get a nice overseas contract.
"I knew what people were saying, but it didn't really matter to me," Frazier told The Tampa Bay Times recently. "I knew that if I could get the opportunity to show what I could do, I would make the most of it. … My concern was just getting into the combine, just getting an opportunity to get into the combine. I knew that if I could just get into that, everything else would take care of itself."
The 6-foot-4, 200-pound Frazier had some nice combine performances and team workouts; good enough that he shows up in a few (not all) mock drafts in the mid- to late-second round range. And when it comes to that late in the draft, it's all about fit and need.
If a team like, say, the Denver Nuggets or Charlotte Hornets is looking to fill a void for a role-playing outside shooter off the bench, there were few better in the college game at knocking down the long ball in transition than Frazier the last few years. He has a defined skill that, frankly, a lot of NBA teams lack. 
Chris Walker is a different story.
Walker (right) is a 6-11, 210-pound power forward enigma. He possesses enough athleticism to entice the scouts, but it was the application of those gifts -- specifically, the lack thereof -- that concern folks at the next level. They were only applied enough at UF to average 4.8 points, 3.7 rebounds in less than 15 minutes per game as a sophomore last season, so how are they going to transfer against the best players in the world?
If they are, here's how: At the next level, they all think they're better. And there may be one team (which is all it takes) that looks at Walker and says, “Well, it'll be different when we coach him.”
For what it's worth, one CBS Sports analyst projects Walker to the Philadelphia 76ers with the 60th (and last) selection in the draft. The Sixers have five second-round draft picks, so spending one on Walker and stashing him in the D-League to see how motivated he is may not be that farfetched a scenario.
Another name to keep an eye on is that of Kenneth “Speedy” Smith, a point guard who went virtually unrecruited out of Boca Ciega, Fla., and went on to become 2015 Conference USA Player of the Year at Louisiana Tech under the tutelage of White in his final year with the Bulldogs.
Smith's 267 assists (7.4 per game) led the nation last season and his 858 over the last four seasons were the most by any player in the country during that span. His 258 steals were the fourth most.
Though he started the offseason rated as a solid second-round pick, Smith did not perform particularly well in combine workouts -- ESPN rates him the No. 10 point guard prospect -- so he'll turn on the television and hope someone calls his name late Thursday night (or early Friday morning).
Put the Red Bull on ice.
