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Five potential sleepers in the draft
By Jonathan Givony, DraftExpress.com
Jerome Randle, PG, Sr., Cal
In today's NBA, classic point guards are an increasingly rare species and pure shooters who are not one-dimensional are even harder to find.
Enter Randle, the Pac-10 Player of the Year who led the Golden Bears to the conference's regular-season le and the second round of the 2010 NCAA tournament. He's an outstanding ball-handler, a creative passer, quick in the open floor and a smart, mature game manager executing his team's half-court offense.
More than just a terrific floor general, Randle also grades out as one of the best shooters in the draft, having converted 46 percent from three-point range as a junior. (He also made 93.3 percent from the free-throw line last season and finished his collegiate career at 87.1 percent.) He can make shots both with his feet set and off the dribble, showing range that extends well beyond the NBA three-point line, and he's just as adept at creating and hitting jumpers in the mid-range area.
So why is Randle -- who averaged at least 18 points in each of the last two seasons -- viewed by many as a borderline second-round pick, not even deemed good enough to be one of the 53 players invited to last month's NBA Combine in Chicago? For one reason -- size. Randle measured just 5-9¼ without shoes, with only a 6-foot wingspan.
If we've learned anything over the past few years, though, it's that smaller point guards, such as Darren Collison, Aaron Brooks, J.J. Barea and Ty Lawson, can be successful in today's NBA, especially if they can make shots from the perimeter, run an offense and be compe ive on the defensive end.
Randle can't play for every NBA coach, but he has enough qualities to at least be a legitimate change-of-pace backup, and maybe even more than that. DraftExpress ranks him the second-best point guard in the draft, after likely No. 1 pick John Wall, and on the right team he could surely find a niche.
