Darren Collison, PG, UCLA
Collison has also been an enigma. As a sophomore, a number of teams saw him as a potential lottery pick, but his numbers haven't really improved during his junior and senior years.
On the plus side, he's probably the fastest player in the draft. Even in a situation like the Sand Dunes at Manhattan Beach, Collison can fly up and down the floor. I also think Collison is a good shooter -- he shot 52 percent from 3 as a junior and nearly 40 percent from 3 as a senior.
In the workout with former Hornets assistant coach Dave Miller, Collison was unconscious shooting from everywhere on the floor. Whether he was driving to the basket, shooting the midrange jumper or launching NBA 3s, his shot was perfect. Combine the speed and shooting ability and you have a really interesting player.
On the downside, Collison is pretty small and lacks great strength. However, his strength coach, Tom Vachet, said that Collison has dramatically improved his strength over the past month without compromising his speed. But given the success of Aaron Brooks in the playoffs, I'm not sure that's going to hurt him as much as it may have in years past. Brooks is proving that smaller guards with great speed are unguardable right now, given the league's prohibition on hand checking. Brooks has more of a scorer's mentality than Collison, but Collison has better floor vision and can play at different speeds.
In fact, you wonder if Collison's numbers weren't artificially deflated playing in Ben Howland's grind-it-out offense. Turn Collison loose on a team like UNC and you could argue he would've put up much higher numbers. However the good news about Collison is that, having played at UCLA, he learned how to play lockdown defense and the half-court game. And he says being able to play both ways will come in handy in the pros.
"I feel like I'm the fastest player in the draft," Collison said. "I'm going to use my quickness. That's how the game is played. Whether you're playing up and down or in the half court, you need quickness. Any time I can use my quickness on the court -- either on the offensive or defensive end -- it's going to be real special for the team that picks me up."
Collison is currently in the mix with a number of other top prospects, but ultimately he'll be competing against the other uber-quick point guards like Ty Lawson, Patrick Mills and Jonny Flynn for a spot in the late lottery to mid-first round. Of the three, Collison is the best shooter, the fastest end to end and the best defender. Whether that's enough to put him ahead of the pack remains to be seen -- but having those four in the gym should be a really interesting workout.
