I'm mad (well, no where near as MAD as I was last night). No, not because the Mavs selected Cherokee Parks at #12. I, as was those in the war room, was surprised that he fell to #12 and he was the obvious choice. The Mavs had even tried trading up to #6 or #7 so that they could draft Bryant Reeves or Parks. No, not because the Mavs selected Loren Myer at #24. They had considered taking him at #12 at one point and thought he would go in the low teens. The Mavs were again surprised to find a player that they wanted but didn't think they would get fall into their lap. No, not because they did not take Mario Bennett. More questions had been raised about his knees and Meyer was a player the front brass wanted more. I'm mad because I missed the entire second round of the draft because they kicked us out of Reunion Arena! Here I had been bragging about how wonderful the Mavs are on draft day to the fans and they go and do something stupid like this. This was the 7th time I had gone to the Mavs draft party (including twice when the Mavs did not have a first round pick) and this was the first time that they told us to go home and that they were not broadcasting the entire draft. They ruined what had been a fun evening for me. They started of the evening by not opening the doors until 5:10 instead of the scheduled 5:00 (it was very hot outside), annoying. Then they showed the 4th quarter and two overtimes of the incredible Houston-Dallas game that I had been dying to see. The Mavs highlight reel was very entertaining. There were boo's heard when clips of Doug Smith, Donald Hodge, and Roy Tarpley were shown. The emcees Jim Durham and Bob Ortegel did as poor of a job as they did last year - they need to take lessons from Allen Stone on how to host a draft party (Stone never abandoned us). We did not get our free meal as they only had two serving stations and the lines were 30 minutes long until late in the first round. It was a very strong showing for a draft party. The paper lists 7,500 in attendance. Of course, a large chunk of those left after the #12 pick and then most of the rest left after the #24. There were pockets of people scattered throughout the arena who stayed waiting to watch the rest of the draft (probably at least 100 - but is hard to guestimate with everyone so scattered) who were upset to get kicked out. Anyways, there were lots of boo's for both the Parks pick (Duke - most people either love them or hate them) and the Meyer pick (most wanted local favorite Mario Bennett). Quotes: Cherokee Parks on being informed that his selection received some boo's at Reunion Arena: "Hey, you're loved and hated but never ignored. You learn that at Duke. Nobody likes us." Keith Grant on who the Mavs did not bring Parks in for a workout: "Cherokee Parks was one of the what-ifs." (ie, he was not expected to be there) Dick Motta: Parks has "great pedigree." Motta: "He slipped. For what reason, we don't care. We did our homework on him. I think he can play both center and forward. Where could you get better? We're floating on air today. This is a lot better draft than we expected, than we deserved." Loren Meyer: "I'm a big guy that can run the floor pretty good. I am going to give my best effort." Meyer on his workout Saturday with the Mavs: "I left with a good felling about the Dallas Mavericks. And I think the Dallas Mavericks had a good feeling about Loren Meyer." Grant on Meyer: "He is a big-time worker." Parks will make is Dallas debut Thursday at a 2 pm news conference and Meyer is scheduled for a Friday news conference. Dallas Morning News' reports on the two players Cherokee Parks (#12 draft pick) Height/Weight: 6-11, 235 Position: Forward-Center College: Duke Personal: Attended Marina High School in Huntington Beach, CA. Named honorable mention All-America as senior. Improved his production in points, assists, rebounds, and free throw percentage in each of his four seasons at Duke. Ranks second all-time in Duke history with 231 career blocks. Established school record for most blocks in a game with 10 vs Clemson as a junior. Became Duke's 40th player with 1,000 career points. Member of the USA National Team at the 1994 Goodwill Games. Loren Meyer (#24 draft pick) Height/Weight: 6-10, 257 Position: Center College: Iowa State Personal: Attended Ruthven-Ayrshire High School in Ruthven, Iowa. Never made All-Big Eight in his four-year career. Junior season ended after 12 games when he suffered a broken collarbone after a truck in which he was riding was struck by a train. Wore uniform #40 as a tribute to former Iowa player and AAU teammate Chris Street, who was killed in another car accident in 1993. Scored career-high 36 points as a junior against Charleston Southern and grabbed career-best 18 rebounds that same season against UT- Arlington. second Big Eight player selected in the first round after Oklahoma State's Bryant Reeves. Notes on the two players from the NBA Draft pamphlet handed out last night. Cherokee Parks, Duke Center, 6-11, 235 Named Honorable Mention All-America by The Associated Press as a senior. Improved his totals in points, assists, rebounds, and FT% each of his four Duke seasons. Ranks second all-time at Duke with 231 career blocks. Established Duke record for most blocks in a game with 10 vs Clemson as a junior. Member of the USA Team at 1994 Goodwill GAmes. Third in the nation in FG% as a sophomore with .652. Scored 21 points on 9-9 shooting vs San Francisco. As a junior, averaged 14.4 ppg and 8.4 rpg. Grabbed a career- high 20 rebounds against Xavier. As a senior, led team with 19.0 ppg and 9.3 rpg. Had career-high 29 points vs George Washington and Notre Dame as a senior. Loren Meyer, Iowa State Center, 6-10, 257 Named Honorable Mention All-Big Eight by the Associated Press and Big Eight coaches. Made successful return to team after broken collarbone suffered when truck he was riding in was hit by a train on Jan. 18, 1994, causing him to miss the final 15 games on the 93-94 season. As a sophomore, had season-high 22 points vs Colorado. As a junior, was off to a great start prior to truck-train accident. Through 12 games, was team's leading scorer (22.2 ppg), rebounds (9.8 rpg), and shot-blockers (31). Scored career-high 36 points vs Charleston Southern. Grabbed career-high 18 rebounds vs Texas-Arlington. Named to All-Tournament Team at Nike Desert Classic after scoring 11 ppg, shooting 65% from the field. The Usenet Scouting Reports on Cherokee Parks and Loren Myers (with thanks to Craig Simpson for compiling these and all the Usenet Scouting Reports). Name: Cherokee Parks College: Duke Height: 6-11 Weight: 240 Position: Center Other positions: Power Forward Strengths: Shotblocking, agility, finishing moves, rebounding, jump shot to 21' Weaknesses: Lack of concentration, occasional passiveness, stamina Stats: G MIN FG FGA 3P 3PA FT FTA REB PF AST TO BLK STL PTS 91-92 Duke 34 435 60 105 0 0 50 69 81 57 13 30 35 5 170 92-93 Duke 32 899 161 247 0 0 72 100 220 68 14 56 65 25 394 93-94 Duke 34 1038 186 347 3 17 115 149 284 77 31 57 76 37 490 94-95 Duke 31 1091 222 443 31 85 114 147 289 68 45 63 55 26 589 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- TOTALS 131 3463 629 1142 34 102 351 465 874 270 103 206 231 93 1643 MIN FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG TPG BPG SPG PPG 91-92 Duke 12.8 57.1 ERR 72.5 2.4 0.4 0.9 1.0 0.1 5.0 92-93 Duke 28.1 65.2 ERR 72.0 6.9 0.4 1.8 2.0 0.8 12.3 93-94 Duke 30.5 53.6 17.6 77.2 8.4 0.9 1.7 2.2 1.1 14.4 94-95 Duke 35.2 50.1 36.5 77.6 9.3 1.5 2.0 1.8 0.8 19.0 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- TOTALS 26.4 55.1 33.3 75.5 6.7 0.8 1.6 1.8 0.7 12.5 Poop: Cherokee Parks came to Duke as the most heralded big man to come out of California since Bill Walton. He was billed as impressive and dominating, both offensively and defensively. While he never quite lived up to that hype in his career at Duke, he did manage to carve out a very effective four years, with excellent shooting, rebounding and shotblocking numbers, as well as a substantial number of wins. Yet Parks will always be judged by his potential, and there is definitely a sense that he hasn't tapped all of his considerable talent. Whether his limitations will allow him to do that in the NBA remains to be seen. As a freshman, Parks started off well, scoring and rebounding in double digits until an injury slowed him down. The other factor that hurt his progress as a frosh was Christian Laettner's notorious verbal torture. Laettner, in an effort to make Parks a better and tougher player, insulted, taunted and humiliated Parks whenever possible. This ended up having the opposite effect, with the mild-mannered Parks sulking and languishing on the bench. When Laettner lightened up later in the year, Parks responded and ended up a valuable reserve as Duke won the national title. Parks started as a sophomore and stepped up his game with the departure of Laettner. Still, Parks would frequently disappear for long stretches at a time during games, especially defensively. This would often occur against teams with inferior post men. Parks would usually come to play against highly touted big men, such as when he played extremely well against future lottery picks Juwan Howard and Chris Webber in a game at Duke. "The Chief" did start to play consistently in the last ten games of the season, before disappearing and then getting injured in an NCAA loss. As a junior, Parks put up slightly improved numbers, but played with much greater consistency. He started putting up more jumpers, including the occasional three-pointer. He played fine defense and again rose to the occasion against big-time competition. His interior defense helped lead Duke to the national championship game. As a senior, he had his finest statistical season on a losing team. Without his offensive presence, the team would have been much worse. He became a prolific scorer playing with an inexperienced backcourt. He played excellent defense without the benefit of experienced forwards to play help defense. His three point shot became a consistent weapon. His scoring duties cut down on his rebounding somewhat, and he began to take some questionable shots. He was unable to unite a team that had young players in key spots, but that may have been beyond most players. The key to his season what that he felt confident as the main offensive threat. In general, Parks is a very good athlete who has decent speed, good leaping ability, and excellent agility around the basket. He is not extremely strong or dominating inside, relying more on timing and agility to pick up blocks. He doesn't have the strength to go inside consistently and draw fouls, although he is an excellent foul shooter once he's there. He has a servicable drop step though he lacks a consistent back-to-the-basket move, and never uses a hook shot around the basket. He's a good rebounder who can dominate when inspired, nabbing 20 in a game as a junior for a Duke team that was not rebound-oriented. He has very good hands and is a great face-up shooter. He has deadly baseline shots with a quick release. For shots 17' and further, his release is considerably slower but still very accurate. He is not a great passer and only an adequate ballhandler, and so has problems with double-teams around the basket. He plays much better with someone who can get him the basket, since his one-on-one moves are average at best when he's on the perimeter, although he did occasionally show a surprisingly quick first step. While better in a halfcourt game, he is an excellent outlet passer and is also capable of finishing the fast break. The major knocks on Parks as a pro are his aggressiveness, consistency and finding a true position for his size and speed. Parks has at times lacked the competitive fire necessary for success, although it has usually come while playing inferior opponents. This will obviously not be a big factor in the NBA. Parks proved as a senior that he could be consistent in every game for a team that needed him to play well to have any chance to win. He has the size and heft to play center in the NBA, but probably isn't strong enough to do so. Power forward is probably his eventual destination as a pro, although with his shot he could spend time as a small forward. I expect Parks to go in the early first round, possibly in the lottery. Any team that needs a big man that can score and block shots would do well to draft him, but they would be better served if they already had a good point guard and played more of a halfcourt game. He also would probably serve best as the third scoring option on the team. Scout: Rob Clough ============================================================================= Name: Loren Meyer College: Iowa State Height: 6-10 Weight: 257 Position: Power Forward Other positions: Center Strengths: Weaknesses: Stats: G MIN FG FGA 3P 3PA FT FTA REB PF AST TO BLK STL PTS 91-92 Iowa St 34 406 72 140 3 10 28 47 106 75 15 26 23 21 175 92-93 Iowa St 31 698 116 214 0 3 71 100 153 90 40 66 30 20 303 93-94 Iowa St 12 369 97 159 0 0 73 99 114 25 20 26 31 7 267 94-95 Iowa St 34 1009 198 355 0 1 139 190 306 97 50 79 50 13 535 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- TOTALS 111 2482 483 868 3 14 311 436 679 287 125 197 134 61 1280 MIN FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG TPG BPG SPG PPG 91-92 Iowa St 11.9 51.4 30.0 59.6 3.1 0.4 0.8 0.7 0.6 5.1 92-93 Iowa St 22.5 54.2 0.0 71.0 4.9 1.3 2.1 1.0 0.6 9.8 93-94 Iowa St 30.8 61.0 ERR 73.7 9.5 1.7 2.2 2.6 0.6 22.3 94-95 Iowa St 29.7 55.8 0.0 73.2 9.0 1.5 2.3 1.5 0.4 15.7 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- TOTALS 22.4 55.6 21.4 71.3 6.1 1.1 1.8 1.2 0.5 11.5 Poop: Strengths: Very physical player. Not afraid to bang bodies inside. He has got decent post moves and a jumper up to 12 feet. He can block some shots and a good rebounder. Weaknesses: Gets tired very easily. Not enough stamina for NBA. Fouls too much. Does not have enough experience since he missed almost a whole season due to injuries. He can be a decent backup center averaging 15-25 minutes in NBA. He can possibly play some PF but may not be quick enough to defend NBA PFs. Scout: Divyesh Sheth More Poop: Meyer really helped himself at the Desert Classic averaging 10.5 points and three rebounds. He made the MVP list. Scout: Craig Simpson =============================================================================