Behind the scenes of my NBA Draft, our Aussie prospects for 2025

The NBA Draft process is an interesting one.  

A lot of it is guided by your agent and their expertise in the area, which is super important.  

There's definitely a strategy when it comes to the draft, whether you're a top five pick, a first rounder, second rounder or whether you're on the bubble.

There's a sound strategy with it and I think you've got to know roughly where you're going to be as a player, where you're going to fall if so, and then navigate your process. Do you do the full combine stuff or do you not? How many team workouts? How many people in your workout? Do you go against people above or below you in draft projections? There is more to it than meets the eye.  

Back when I was involved and now, although not as big, there was the Portsmouth Invitational, which was generally for second round guys trying to move up. For example, a first round pick wouldn't play in that. Does your agent say, 'we think you're a top 15 pick, so anyone below that we're not working out for'? All of these things are super important and it's guided by having a good agent. There are some players that worked out for every NBA team possible, sometimes twice for the same team and have 30-40 workouts before the draft.

The first step is being honest with yourself and having an honest dialogue with your agent about where you think you're going to fall.  

My process was super interesting because as the college season went on throughout the year, I kept moving up in the draft projections by five or 10 spots a month. I went from being a late first round, early second round pick at the start of my sophomore year to by January, I was top 10 and then by February, I was top five and it kept moving up that way.

So then once I played my last game at the University of Utah, I moved to Washington, D.C. I placed myself there because my agent was based there and basically just went to work with my body and making sure that I was ready. Basketball and weights, everyday!  

The first step for me was the lottery. We had an inclination that I'd be top three, top four at that point, but we couldn't really put that together until we knew what team had what picks. So then, for example, if Charlotte had the number one pick, I wouldn't have went first because they drafted Emeka Okafor the season before. If Orlando had it, same kind of deal with Dwight Howard, right?  

Milwaukee ends up getting the number one pick, Atlanta gets two, I think Utah had three and we knew that both Atlanta and Milwaukee didn't really have a franchise five-man. So, my agent advised that you're not going to work out for anyone but those two teams. 'We think you're a top two pick' he said.

Then how you schedule your workouts is also important. My workouts were one-on-zero, no other players were in it, just myself and the team. They'd get an assistant out to play one-on-one with you with a pad or whatever. But the strategy with that is, for me, there was no real incentive to work out against another player that's below me in the draft and then I don't do well, they move up, I can only move down. Whereas if you're a second-round pick, you want to go against other guys that are supposed to be above you because you want to prove you can kick their ass and move up.  

They were super tough workouts because you don't get a break really. When you're working out with four or five guys, you do your drill and then the other four guys go so you get your breath back. This was one to two hours. Solo. With the whole organisation watching. Milwaukee's one was tough, but Atlanta's one was really hard. Atlanta, they killed me. They had me doing full-court drills one-on-zero by myself.  

After those two works outs, it was sit and wait time. I went back DC, kept working out and then waited for the draft to come.  

On draft night, sometimes teams will tell you they're picking you beforehand if you are available, Milwaukee didn't want to tell me. We kind of thought we'll go number one, but we didn't get any concrete security from them. Afterwards, they told us they wanted it to be as natural as possible with my reaction and they felt like they wanted it to be pure. So, they didn't let us know. It was a good feeling getting called in first.  

With so many Aussies declaring for the draft this year, let's take a look at the NBL prospects as well as Florida big man Alex Condon.

ALEX CONDON - FLORIDA GATORS (Projected 29th in ESPN Mock Draft)

His rise has really come out of nowhere. I read that he was also considering AFL a couple of years ago as a possibility if basketball didn't work out, which is quite interesting.  

Whenever you're on a national championship winning team, your numbers don't have to be as good, which is great for him. He put up some good numbers, but he's on such a deep team that's good. You don't need to be putting up 20 and 15. I think NBA teams value the fact that you're on a good team. You won, and you contributed.

I think it's hard to tell where he'll sit. Is he a natural five, a little bit undersized? He's not a pure seven-footer but plays bigger than his size. He's got a nice touch, he just knows how to play, he's got some toughness to him. It will be interesting to see where he goes.

He's just well-rounded, he knows how to play the game and you can see that he's being taught how to play the right way. He thinks the game and he plays hard. That's the one thing with Australian guys generally. He has the game-winning loose ball in a national championship-winning game, he recovers the ball to get Florida that stop and win the championship, right? Like, if Houston come up with that ball, God knows what can happen, it could have been a three ball.

I think nowadays, you know, there's a lot less patience now in the NBA. Whereas when I came in, there was much more patience, especially with big guys. It takes some time. Now they want production right away from their picks and I think he's a prime guy that could probably jump in and play a role pretty quickly on a decent team.  

As per the mock drafts he will likely fall late first, early second, which means he'll probably fall to a good team at that spot. Then you insert yourself into a team that's mid or top tier in their respective conferences, and you can come off that bench and play a role. Sometimes it's good to go that way rather than go on to a shitty team where they're expecting you to turn things around pretty quickly and there's a lot less patience.

ROCCO ZIKARSKY - BRISBANE BULLETS (Projected 57th in ESPN Mock Draft)

He's an interesting one because I think the NBL stuff probably hurt him more than it helped him. I think it somewhat hurt his stock.  

He hasn't got his body right yet as a young fella but I've heard he's spent a lot of time in the gym in the last couple of months and trying to get stronger and that's probably been the one Achilles heel for him. He's got the length and size, but he's kind of a little bit weaker on that front, which he would have to get stronger, especially when you have to go up against guys like your Jokic's and these kinds of guys that are big, strong and physical guys. He would struggle today but he's got the potential to work his body to a place where he can really battle.  

He's got the length, he's got the size and he's got great touch for a big man, he can really shoot the ball and he's gotten that part of his game much better. It's going to be an interesting one to see where he falls because you just don't know.

That Boomers five spot is one that needs to be addressed. We've got Jock, obviously, but beyond that, we've got to find something for the long term and I think he's the one everyone's looking at. So, there's a lot of interest to have him get drafted, do good things, go over there and get it right. But I think he is going to be drafted as a development piece, I don't think he's going to be drafted and play tomorrow.

It's going to take him a year or two, he needs to take his opportunities when they come and just be ready and build his body up. The world is at his feet when it comes to that, and it's just going to be a matter of how he treats it and takes it.

ALEX TOOHEY -SYDNEY KINGS (Projected 40th in ESPN Mock Draft)

It's a buzzword of the NBA at the moment, multi-positional, and that's exactly what Alex Toohey is.  

He's another one where it's intriguing to see where he's going to go because his stock's kind of been up and down over the last two years. Like he'll climb and then some boards have him lower, some have him higher, some have him first round, some have him second round.  

I think his biggest strength is the fact that he can play multiple positions. We played him and he guarded Bryce Cotton at times when we played Perth. He guarded twos, he guarded threes, he guarded fours. He's gotten much better at putting the ball on the floor and making decisions out of getting two feet in the paint, his jump has also gotten much better.  

He's probably the most multi-dimensional player we've (Australians) got in the draft, in my opinion, just with how you can use him, both offensively and defensively. That's probably the most intriguing thing for NBA teams. I think historically, a decade plus before, teams would be like 'oh, he's not a three, he's not a four, he's a tweener' and that was seen as a bad thing. These days, those multi-positional guys are actually seen as positive, right? Because you can play them in different line-ups. Guys like Draymond Green and these kind of players have really excelled and having tweeners is seen as a valuable piece and not a bad thing.

He's ready to play NBA basketball right away, I think, depending on where he goes, I think he'll probably be going to a decent team as well and he could definitely provide some minutes, especially at the defensive end, because he's long, he's athletic enough to guard some more of those tricky guards and just put some length on them and his three ball's improved.

At minimum, you can play him as a three and D guy. His three was up and down at times, but he had periods where he was shooting the lights out for us at practice and games. It's just like every young guy, when you have periods where he shot it poorly, so his percentages weren't off the chart but I think that's where he's valuable.

I think he's probably the most NBA ready right now to play a small role, whatever team he goes into, which will then grow into a bigger role.

LACHLAN OLBRICH -ILLAWARRA HAWKS (Not projected in ESPN Mock Draft)

I love his game.

I think he was integral in that championship series when Froling went out. He really kind of changed the way they played a little bit, he can handle the ball on the perimeter, he can bring the ball up. Will he be drafted? I think it's a coin flip.

I think he is late second round or undrafted. Maybe someone drafts him as a prospect, leaves NBL after another season, lets him develop and then brings him over.  

I think it's probably going to be a coin flip, whether he's in the 50s or out, I think that's where it's going to sit. There's a lot of good bigs coming out from college, there's a lot of Australian bigs that are in the draft. If he does miss the cut of the 50s, he'll probably just go through Summer League and see how that goes but he's got the potential to do it.

The good thing is these days, you don't have to be drafted to make the NBA, as we've seen with numerous guys. You can go and ply your trade overseas, get your game better in a year or two and then readdress the NBA path a couple of years down the line.  

I think improving his jumper will help him but he's not a mass jump shooting guy, that's not his game. His game is mobile, can move, can play out of handoffs, can kind of pass the ball well, really good turning the corner on slower bigs. The jumper will definitely help but I think it's just a matter of getting better for him.

He's got all the tools, he's just putting it all together slowly as a young guy.

BEN HENSHALL - PERTH WILDCATS (Not projected in ESPN Mock Draft)

I like his game, I like his motor, he's got some shit to him and he's got some fight in him. That's what I like about him.  

Perth did play him at the point at times because of the unique situation with Bryce in the two. He's a one-two. I think he's probably, in the long-term, a scoring one, but does need to develop the PG duties more. He can score in bunches.

Watching him from afar, we knew he was a free agent coming out and many teams had their eyes on him, but obviously we went a different way. I like his game. Does he get drafted? I don't know, I don't think so. I think he's probably in the same boat as a Lachlan Olbrich, where he's late second round at best, probably undrafted and goes the Summer League route.  

He's got potential to be a future boomer and be part of that program for a long, long time.

AUSSIES IN THE DRAFT

It's sensational having so many Aussies up for the draft. I just remember being the lone wolf for so many years from Australia and having not many coming through the draft.

Now it seems like we have a plethora of guys getting drafted or being able to get drafted for a number of years now, which is really cool to see. It's really positive for Australian basketball. I'm looking forward to hopefully a couple of these guys getting drafted and going from there and then becoming part of our Boomers program.

NBA Champion Andrew Bogut is a columnist and contributor for Basketball.com.au. He is part owner and assistant coach of the Sydney Kings.

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