The crowd of GMs and scouts was just as strong in the early session of Portsmouth as it has been throughout the tournament, with faces like Kevin McHale and Larry Bird watching almost every minute of action to be seen here side by side at the camp so far. Later on in the day things died down quite a bit as the talent pool dried up, but its fair to say that every player in the tournament has had a fair chance to be evaluated by the people who need to see them play the most.
Portsmouth Invitational Tournament: Day One
Day Two
Day Four
The Rumor Mill:
-The strong presence of international scouts, agents and GMs means that there was always plenty to be learned about the happenings of draft prospects past and present for anyone that bothered to ask. Spurs fans are probably sick of hearing about this, but Luis Scola will have yet another chance to come to the NBA if there is mutual interest on both his part and the San Antonio front office. Scola has a 3 million dollar buyout sum that can be split up into three manageable payments of one million per year if thats what he chooses to do.
-Every NBA person we spoke with has already written off the possibility of seeing Tiago Splitters name on the early-entry list because of his comments to the Spanish media about wanting to stay in Spain as well as the long-prevailing belief that he has no buyout sum in his contract. Tau Vitorias front office has been emphatic in stating that there will be no discussions whatsoever about Splitter leaving the team, but sources in Spain now claim that a fixed sim is in place for the Brazilian to buy out his contract if thats what he chooses. The figure is for a very reasonable 2 million dollars. This means if hes drafted 10th for example, hed make around $400,000 his rookie season after paying off his buyout when taking into consideration the $500,000 NBA teams are allowed to contribute.
-NBA sources in Portsmouth confirmed to DraftExpress that Josh McRoberts and his camp have set up appointments with three of the heaviest hitting NBA agents in the business over the next week or so. Although hes still in the information gathering process, it appears to be only a matter of time now until McRoberts makes his final decision known.