Daniel Orton talks on the upcoming NBA Draft and that "three point three rebound average" at UK

It’s a slow news Saturday in the world of UK Athletics and like most sites, I am feeling the challenge of finding new stories to give you today. I did find a bit on Daniel Orton. He is apparently doing a NBA Draft diary type thing for the Oklohoman in which he address the environment of the NBA Combine and how is is having to address some questions about his production at Kentucky.

Since he was a Cat, you do have to root for him and hope that it works out, but you get the feeling that another year could have served him well. It is an interesting read however and gives some perspective as to what the “UK NBA Five” are going through:

I’ve heard that I could go anywhere from 14th to 24th in the draft. But I’m hoping to move up.

I’ve worked out for Indiana, Toronto and I just got done working out for Sacramento on Tuesday.

As far as what we do in the workouts, we start off with simple big-man drills and then we’ll do just post moves with no one guarding us. Then we might play one-on-one where everyone has to guard everyone once, then some two-on-two sometimes full court like I had to do in Sacramento. In my other two workouts with Indiana and Toronto, they had two guards with us so we could have some three-on-three teams.

The NBA combine was cool. It was incredible seeing all those people, like Larry Bird, who asked a lot of questions and told me I have a high ceiling and that I could go places. But it was tough with eight meetings in a day, very stressful… especially when they’re grilling you.

The interviews at the combine we had with teams would get interesting, because if a team was really interested they had true facts on you. They would do background checks and ask certain people different questions. I know they asked my assistant high school coach Andy Fisher questions, they might even go back all the way to ask your second grade teacher or kindergarten principal about you. It is understandable, though, because they are investing a lot of money into you.

There were people outside our hotel in Chicago asking for autographs and wanting to buy our jerseys and shoes from anywhere to $200-$500. It was cool, though.

The draft process is just BUSY. It’s been crazy but fun.

When people continue to bring up my three-point, three-rebound average at Kentucky, I just smile and say I understand. I know that I’m making the right decision, though.

I’m working to improve my shooting and a lot of little things in the post, basically technique.

Working out in San Francisco has helped me. It’s gotten me in better shape and has made me tougher mentally.

I’d love to play for the Thunder. I know I could help them out a lot and could really see myself playing well with them.

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