CHICAGO — While the San Antonio Spurs claimed the top prize of the NBA Draft lottery in Chicago this week, the race for the second overall pick took shape after the lottery and into the draft combine as well, as Alabama wing Brandon Miller and G League Ignite guard Scoot Henderson vie for the No. 2 selection.
The race got even more interesting after a report this week suggested Miller was struggling in workouts and interviews with teams, while Henderson has gotten hurt by the idea that he took it easy the second half of the G League season.
In a Friday episode of Locked On NBA Big Board live from the scouting combine in Chicago, host Rafael Barlowe was joined by Richard Stayman to discuss how each athlete can distinguish himself between the combine and the NBA Draft on June 22.
“By all accounts, Brandon Miller has always been very charismatic, good with the media, good in his interviewing,” Stayman said of the negative reports about Miller. “I can’t imagine it would be different with an NBA team. It just doesn’t match with what we’ve seen the last six months of him playing.”
Barlowe reported Miller could have had a bad week for different reasons.
“I had heard from somebody that was very close to the situation that Brandon was sick,” Barlowe said on the show. “If he’s out of shape, it’s because he hadn’t worked out and he was sick.”
On the other hand, Henderson benefited from avoiding any negative rumors but may have suffered based on how the lottery shook out. Charlotte at No. 2 and Portland at No. 3 both have All-Star caliber point guards already on the roster in Damian Lillard and LaMelo Ball.
“I would think that Scoot is the biggest loser from the lottery results,” Barlowe said. “He’s not going to a situation where he is the clear-cut, primary ball-handler.
“He was talked about as being as generational as Vic … and now there’s a really legit chance that he could fall to No. 3.”