By John Morgan, FOX Sports West Senior Producer
NBA star Devin Booker and Clemson running back C.J. Fuller are two of the many Olympic and collegiate talent potential future collegians who will once again get their first taste of the professional world this weekend at the College Basketball Invitational.
The 2017 season has been an odd one for Dennis Cradle. After 9/11 destroyed the ability of NBA teams to scout more than four months, the former Cal Poly coach sought a role opportunity to resurrect basketball in the New York metropolitan area.
The president of the Brooklyn Nets hired Cradle to be the franchise’s new player development coach, despite his lack of any basketball experience. The 30-year-old Cradle just completed his first season in the Big Apple, where he remained in “draft limbo” for six months before finally agreeing to terms with the Nets.
Now, seven months later, the Nets have finished 21-61 and are looking for future head coaching positions and players to fill it. In their first year under Cradle’s direction, Brooklyn’s club was 4-26 through its third game.
But they need to do better. The Nets have zero players under contract in NBA free agency this summer. The more they lose in these final 13 games, the more available cap space Cradle will get to coach in the NBA.
With that in mind, there will be plenty of college talent coming up the Brooklyn pipeline in the coming years, including one most frequently mentioned as a possibility at the NBA Draft lottery in May.
Fox Sports West insider Bruce Jenkins recently spoke with current US Open finalist Daniil Medvedev and explained why a young man with a history of winning down-to-the-wire matches is the future Williams sister.
Click here to listen to the interview
John Morgan is the Sr. Producer of FOX Sports West, the flagship station of the Los Angeles Kings and Los Angeles Clippers.