Ex-WSU star Weaver gears up for NBA draft

PULLMAN – Growing up in Beloit, Wis., Kyle Weaver dreamed about playing in the NBA.

Now that the dream seems to becoming close to reality, Weaver has discovered something new: His dream, like Beloit’s famous Swiss cheese, was full of holes.

“You don’t realize at a young age the process, how much energy and work goes into it,” Weaver said recently. “You just see the big lights, the games, the last-minute shots, but it’s like anything, you don’t see the practices, the running, the conditioning, almost killing myself to get to that point.”

And that’s what Washington State’s 6-foot-6, All-Pacific 10 Conference guard is doing in Pullman, weeks after graduating – “Four and done,” he says, proudly – with a general studies degree.

He’s in the gym, sometimes with old friend and former Cougar Ivory Clark, sometimes alone, working on his game in preparation for the June 26 draft. It’s a day that will make or break his future, not just his dreams.

So what will happen in New York?

“You hear so much, it’s really hard to say,” Weaver said. “You see the stuff on the Internet, with the mock drafts and that, especially now with the lottery being done and everybody knowing when they’re drafting. A lot of things are changing up now, even from before.”

Some draft websites have had him in the first round – to Detroit, Utah or Seattle – early on. Now he’s usually either listed in the second round or not at all. But everyone expects him to sign somewhere.

Not that Weaver cares much which NBA team calls his name or gives him a free-agent contract. What he understands is his dream is in someone else’s hands.

“No, I have no favorites,” he said. “It’s one of those things where I just go to the gym, work out, handle what I can handle.”

“Teams are going to look at you maybe one time,” said one-time Cougar guard, and 14-year NBA veteran Craig Ehlo, who saw Weaver play often the past four years. “So that one time, that workout they put you through, is the basis of whether they like you or not.

“Every time you take the floor … then you’ve got to do something special to keep their attention because they have a whole list of guys that are comparable to you. So you have to do something special that jumps off the page.”

Up until this past weekend, Weaver expected to be in Orlando, Fla., today as one of some 65 invited participants at the NBA’s pre-draft camp. But, according to his agent, Mike Hodges, he and Weaver decided attending would not help his draft status.

“We decided that (going to Orlando) wouldn’t help us in the draft … it only had the potential to hurt us,” Hodges said, noting Weaver’s status seems to be pretty secure. “He’s had interest anywhere from 18 to 35. I don’t think that even if Kyle was to shine there it’s going to change.

“He’s working out for every team in the range of 18 to 35. I don’t think him going to Orlando is going to put him in the lottery.”

Hodges then listed Weaver’s June individual workout schedule with NBA teams, starting June 3 in Miami and continuing until just before the draft. He will be seen, Hodges said, by 18 teams.

“If I have a chance to push myself up higher, push my stock higher, I definitely want to do that,” Weaver said. “If that means I get a chance to go somewhere, work out in front of certain people, and do certain things, interview, I’m definitely willing to do that.

“I don’t know anybody who wouldn’t want to put themselves up in the best position to be successful.”

So what is ultimately going to be Weaver’s draft position?

Ehlo has a trio of friends who are NBA general managers, including former Cavalier teammate Danny Ferry, now GM of their old team. So he has some informed thoughts on Weaver’s future.

“In my own opinion, he’s a first-round draft pick,” said Ehlo, who fills his basketball seasons with color commentary on television broadcasts. “But that doesn’t mean a lot when a team has a draft pick. They might be interested in him, but someone didn’t get chosen so (they go that way).

“I wouldn’t say he’s a for-sure first-round draft pick but he’s definitely going to get drafted. He’s in the top 100 by far.”

Especially if NBA people see the same resemblance Ehlo does.

“He’s not one-dimensional (and) he’s unconventional,” Ehlo said. “If you had to compare him to someone – I don’t like doing that then you’ve kind of labeled the guy – but if I had to compare him to anyone, he reminds me of (former NBA star) Scottie Pippen, a guy that I played against a lot.

“Same size, passes the ball very well, can handle the basketball very well. shooting was suspect when he first came out, but that’s something you can work on and obviously improve.”

Ah, the shooting. For a guy who averaged 12.2 points (along with 4.3 assists and 5.3 rebounds) on 46-percent shooting his senior year, Weaver has heard a lot of criticism about his shooting. It’s something he’s working on, but not dwelling on.

“Everybody has something to say, everybody has a knock on everybody,” Weaver said. “That’s one of the few things I’ve heard about myself. I try not to even listen to those things.

“Most of it is me. I know me better than anybody. I know what I need to work on, I know what I need to get better at.”

His strengths, according to Ehlo, outweigh the weaknesses.

“He also has rebounding skills, he got every big rebound that I can remember, defensively,” Ehlo said of the first-team All-Pac 10 defensive player. “His length and size and quickness give him a lot of advantages against a bigger guy, but he can also be quick enough to guard a smaller guy. You add all that up, it’s … if the number was 100, he’s pretty close to that.”

As Weaver moves through the workouts, the interviews, the next month, he realizes the next few weeks are just a start. His dream is not just to get drafted in June, but to play in the league for years to come.

“(What’s) most important, when you get there, not being satisfied, not settling,” he said. “I think that will be a big thing for me, not just making it, saying, ‘I’m here now.’ I want to try to establish myself. I definitely want to get better every year. Trying to be a key on whatever team, whoever wants me, wherever I can play.”

Notes

Former teammate Derrick Low, another All-Pac 10 honoree and the Cougars’ all-time leading 3-point shooter, is taking a different path to a professional future. Low attended a pre-draft camp in Portsmouth, Va., but wasn’t invited to Orlando. He’s in San Francisco, working out each day and preparing for interviews with teams. “Right now (the focus) is the NBA, that’s the priority,” Low told the Honolulu Advertiser. “The overseas (opportunities) will be there, but right now the first priority is the NBA.” … There are 11 former Pac-10 players in Orlando, three from Oregon: Malik Hairston, Bryce Taylor and Maarty Leunen, who played with Low and Weaver on the U.S. Pan-Am team last summer. Five of the Pac-10 players – UCLA’s Kevin Love and Russell Westbrook, USC’s O.J. Mayo, Arizona’s Jerryd Bayless and Brook Lopez of Stanford – are only going through drills and not playing.