Philadelphia 76ers workout with Dominic Cheek - NBA Update
Philadelphia 76ers recently held a pre draft workout session at the Saint Joseph's University's Hagen Arena. The session was conducted for the evaluation of 5 players, Dominic Cheek from Villanova, guard Kim English from Missouri
and centre Mindaugas Kupsas from Lithuania.
Moreover Renardo Sidney from Mississippi State and guard/forward Alex Young from IUPUI also participated in the workout.
Amongst the lot, Dominic Cheek has a lot to prove. He has been criticized for jumping too early in the main stream basketball and will have to pull something special to impress the scouts.
Last season as a junior at Villanova, he averaged 12.5 points and 3.9 boards in 30 games, while during his sophomore, he averaged just 5.6 points on 39.8% from the field.
After his senior season at St. Anthony's High School in Jersey City in 2009 he was named as the McDonald's All-American.
He didn’t really come up to the expectations in Villanova and he was supposed to wait and perform in his senior year before making himself available for the draft. But after the workout he explained the reason.
"It was for personal reasons -- family," Cheek said. "I just wanted to take care of my grandmother and my little brothers."
His chances to be selected in the 1st two rounds are most unlikely but yet again the youngster is hopeful.
"A lot of people keep saying that I might go undrafted," Cheek said, "but it only takes one coach to like you."
Cheeks and his siblings are raised by their grandmother his decision to skip senior year is motivated by the thought of sharing her burden. He admitted that staying in the college for an extra year might have benefited him.
"I think [it would have helped]," he said. "But after talking it over with [Villanova coach Jay Wright] and my family and everything, we just thought it was the best decision for me to go early. Right now."
Only the time will decide where he winds up after the draft. But he will have to improve his shooting that is just around 40% plus his aforementioned sophomore performance can be a bid hurdle in landing a cheesy contract.
Cheeks is hoping to play at the position of 2-guards at the professional level. But he also admitted that fact that he will have to improve his shooting.
"A lot of people talk about my shot," he said. "I know I can shoot the ball. It was just bad shot decision at Villanova. But as I'm learning now, I know I have to just leave that behind”.
English who also participated in the session has recently completed his senior year at Missouri. He averaged 14.5 points and 4.2 rebounds.
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