Noah Vonleh’s stock is rising after draft workouts

While the “Big-4” in Andrew Wiggins, Joel Embiid, Jabari Parker, and Dante Exum have been getting all the love leading up to the 2014 NBA Draft, it seems like Indiana big man Noah Vonleh has been creeping up draft boards following an excellent display at a draft workout per ESPN Insider Chad Ford.

This isn’t an uncommon rise. Year after year NBA executives get excited about a prospect based on how well he works behind the scenes. There is no way to know that this is a crapshoot method of evaluating a draft prospect, but executives often can’t help themselves when oozing at the potential shown up until the draft.

And Noah Vonleh does exactly that: ooze potential. Following an exciting freshmen season where Vonleh averaged 11.3 points on 52 percent shooting (48 percent from three), 9.0 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks per games, mock drafts pegged the big man to be selected somewhere between the fourth and tenth pick of the NBA Draft, depending on what direction teams decided to go in. But after these workouts, it’s hard to see a player who has often been compared to Chris Bosh without the elite shooting slip past the Utah Jazz at five. And if he does, the Boston Celtics will surely be there to scoop him up.

There’s no way to tell if Vonleh will be as good as few scouts predict he’ll be, but as long as he doesn’t end up like Darko Milicic who skyrocketed up into the number two pick of the 2003 NBA Draft following an excellent workout with the Detroit Pistons, teams will be satisfied with the player they pick.