Prospects need to ‘trust process’ before NBA draft moment

Rin New York oughly 32 hours before the NBA Draft, most of the projected lottery picks ran the media gauntlet in a ballroom at a downtown Manhattan hotel.

Not surprisingly, the crowds around Markelle Fultz and Lonzo Ball, the consensus top 2 picks, dwarfed those of the other participants. Fultz made it seem like landing in Philadelphia (seen as a certainty once the Celtics-Sixers deal was completed) might have been predestined.

“Actually, I’ve been saying ‘Trust the Process’ (the Sixers’ tagline for their years-long rebuild), I didn’t even know about Philly,” Fultz said.

“Me, I got cut from (junior varsity in high school). So the big thing we used to say back home was, Trust the Process, not transferring schools. I didn’t know about the saying Trust the Process with Philly until probably my senior year when I was watching basketball and seeing the tweets about it. I thought I came up with it at first.”

Ball, the jumbo-sized UCLA point guard who will learn from the best tall point guard of them all, Magic Johnson, if he goes to the Lakers, answered as many questions about his father as he did about his game.

How many times has he been asked about the outlandish things his outspoken pops, LaVar Ball, says and how that has impacted how teams feel about him?

“I don’t know. Too many times,” the younger Ball said with a smile.

Is he worried all of the chatter will make his life in the NBA tougher?

“It’s probably (putting a) target on me, but I don’t really care about it,” he said.

Ball seems to have a good handle on things, despite the circus-like atmosphere around him.

He is relaxed on the court and says he can thank his dad for that.

“He always told me that basketball is a game, it’s supposed to be fun, it’s just a game and pressure is not that, it’s like, life stuff, like coming home, the light is off, you don’t have food on the table,” Ball said. “

RAPTORS MIGHT HAVE TO TRADE UP The Toronto Raptors don’t have the luxury of a lottery pick this year (they selected Jakob Poeltl ninth overall in 2016 and Pascal Siakam 27th). The team currently holds the 23rd selection, but many of the players that appear to have piqued the interest of president Masai Ujiri and Co. could be off the board, if mock drafts hold.

UCLA’s frontcourt visited Toronto and met with team brass. Centre Ike Anigbogu, one of the younger players in the draft and someone who has drawn comparisons to Bismack Biyombo, interviewed, but did not work out.

Sharp-shooting power forward T.J. Leaf went through the full workout process. Sources say the team is particularly intrigued by Anigbogu, who has a long wingspan, but he might not still be around at that point.

Indiana sophomore OG Anunoby, who is recovering from an injury, which kept him from doing drills for anybody, was recently in town for a meeting.

“I liked them a lot, it’s a really good organization, it’s a good team,” Anunoby told Postmedia.

“They were saying they saw me as becoming (more advanced) from where I am now, that they liked me and stuff like that.”

Anunoby said it was “definitely attractive” that Toronto has been able to balance being a top team in the East with developing young talent. Leaf concurred. “It’s a very good spot, obviously. Very successful organization, playoffs every year and making runs,” Leaf said.

“That in itself is appealing because they’re winners and that’s what I like ... the organization is great, the practice facility is amazing.”

The team believes Serge Ibaka will re-sign, which makes Jonas Valanciunas expendable if value can be attained. FINNISH BOMBER Lauri Markkanen is one of the more intriguing players in this draft. He’s a sevenfooter from Vantaa, Finland, a place more known for producing hockey players like Sami Kapanen (father of Maple Leafs forward Kasperi Kapanen), Valtteri Filppula, Tuomo Ruutu and Antti Niemi.

But Markkanen’s father played hoops for the national team and at Kansas, and he says it’s always been basketball for him because it’s the most fun to play.

That said, he dabbled in soccer, and, of course, hockey, with his pals. Wasn’t it hard to find equipment in his size?

“I wasn’t tall (back then).”