The fateful hour of the NBA Draft is drawing ever nearer for former Kansas men’s basketball players Johnny Furphy and Kevin McCullar Jr.
Both will hope to hear their names called on Wednesday, the first day of what will be the first-ever two-day-long NBA Draft. The first round begins at 7 p.m. Central Time on ABC and ESPN, and the second round is set for Thursday at 3 p.m. Central Time on ESPN.
The pair is expected to bring KU’s all-time NBA Draft tally to 89 selections, including 31 in the Bill Self era, after Gradey Dick and Jalen Wilson got picked in last year’s draft.
Furphy, a freshman who a year ago had not yet even participated in the NBA Academy Games that catapulted him to prominence and led to a successful freshman season at KU, has been widely regarded as a late first-round selection.
In recent mock drafts, The Athletic, ESPN and USA Today have all projected him a few picks outside the lottery at No. 18 to the Orlando Magic.
“The Magic tend to value much of what Furphy supplies, having selected players with positional size, skill and strong intangibles over the past several drafts,” ESPN’s Jeremy Woo wrote on Monday.
The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie suggested that “maybe the Magic can bring back fellow Australian Joe Ingles (who has a $11 million team option) to help ease Furphy’s rookie transition.”
The Ringer is a bit lower on Furphy than most, placing him at the No. 24 spot with the New York Knicks and citing his struggles with on-ball defense and shot creation off the dribble as potential drawbacks.
McCullar, a graduate senior who had previously gone through the draft process, may have been on a first-round trajectory early in the season, but after a knee injury had him in and out of action for much of the conference season (and hurt his production when he did play), most of his projections now have him in various positions throughout the second round.
That includes No. 38 to the Knicks (ESPN), No. 46 to the Los Angeles Clippers (The Ringer) and No. 52 to the Golden State Warriors (The Athletic).
CBS Sports’ Gary Parrish had him near the end of the first round as recently as Friday but dropped him out of it in his final mock on Monday.
