Celtics Host Six Players For Pre-Draft Workout, Including Auburn's Sharife Cooper And Texas A&M's Jordan Hall
BOSTON (CBS) -- Brad Stevens has a lot on his offseason plate in his first summer as Celtics president of basketball ops. While he's hard at work finding a new head coach, he also has the July 29th NBA Draft to prepare for.
On Thursday, the Celtics hosted six players for a pre-draft workout, including Auburn's Sharife Cooper, West Virginia's Miles McBride and VCU's Nah'Shon Hyland. Cooper and McBride are projected to be drafted sometime in the first round, while Hyland is a first-round pick in some mocks and an early second rounder in others.
Here is the full group of players that were worked out by the Celtics on Thursday, via Chris Grenham of Forbes Sports:
Cooper is a 6-foot-1 point guard who averaged 20.2 points, 8.1 assists and 4.3 rebounds as a freshman at Auburn. His college career is an extremely small sample size though, as Cooper played in just 12 games, missing the first half of the season as the NCAA investigated his eligibility. Those numbers were pretty solid though, earning Cooper a spot on the SEC All-Freshman Team.
McBride, a 6-foot-2 point guard averaged 12.6 points and 3.3 assists in his two seasons with the Mountaineers. He started 28 of his 29 games as a sophomore, averaging 15.9 points off 43 percent shooting to go with 4.8 assists and 1.9 steals per game. He was named to the All Big-12 Second Team for his efforts last season.
Hyland, a 6-foot-3 point guard, started 24 games for VCU as a sophomore, averaging 19.7 points off 45 percent shooting and 4.7 rebounds per game. He was named to the All A-10 First Team and the All A-10 Tournament First Team after averaging 21 points, 7.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists in the Rams' three tournament games.
Hall, a 6-foot-8 forward, averaged 10.6 points, 5.9 rebounds and 5.7 assists as a freshman at St. Joseph's, but committed to Texas A&M through the transfer portal on May 4. He could become an intriguing second-round option with some strong workouts, but has until July 7 to withdraw from the NBA Draft and retain his NCAA eligibility.
Cockburn, a 7-foot center from Jamaica, averaged 17.7 points and 9.5 rebounds for the Fighting Illini as a sophomore. Koprivica, a 7-foot-1 center from Serbia, averaged 9.1 points, 5.6 rebounds and 1.4 blocks for the Seminoles during his sophomore season. Both are currently projected to go undrafted come July 29.
The Celtics own one pick in each round this year: No. 16 overall in the first round and No. 45 overall in the second round.
