Senior guards Durrell Summers and Kalin Lucas embrace during a Dec. 31, 2010, game at Breslin Center. After illustrious MSU careers, both players hope to be selected in Thursday’s NBA Draft.
The NBA Draft is all about potential.
As teams gather in their war rooms across the country Thursday night, they’ll be waiting anxiously to select the player with the most potential of future success to eventually lead their franchise to the promised land.
So where do former Spartans Kalin Lucas and Durrell Summers fit into the scheme of things?
There’s little doubt Lucas and Summers are two of the most decorated players in the history of MSU basketball. During their time in East Lansing beginning in 2007, the MSU basketball program made four consecutive NCAA Tournaments, including two trips to the Final Four along with two Big Ten championships.
Lucas finished his Spartan career near the top of many of MSU’s statistical categories, including the most free throws made (507), the third most games played (141) and sixth in career assists (558), as well as being named Big Ten Player of the Year during his sophomore season. Summers, meanwhile, holds the MSU record for games played (145) and ranks sixth in MSU history with 161 career 3-point field goals made.
Unfortunately, NBA teams have as much interest in past accomplishments as Anthony Weiner does in hearing jokes using euphemisms about his last name.
Before the 2010-11 season, the Spartans were ranked No. 2 in the nation, and both Lucas and Summers were on the radar for many teams in the NBA — possibly even in the first round. After finishing the season with a disappointing 19-15 record and getting bounced by UCLA in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, Lucas and Summers saw their draft stock plummet.
Unless Pistons’ president of basketball operations Joe Dumars wants to get cute and take a Michigan player to draw attendance, it’s hard to expect Lucas or Summers hearing their name called on Thursday night. CBSSports.com has Lucas rated No. 100 on his Top Draft 2011 Prospects list just behind Summers at No. 95. Most mock drafts, including ones from ESPN, Sports Illustrated and Sporting News leave the Spartan stars off the list of the 60 players expected to get picked.
Although getting drafted is the goal of top players in college basketball, there are examples of players who have gone on to be successful after not getting selected — players such as Ben Wallace, John Starks, Avery Johnson and Raja Bell for example. It’s also likely Lucas and Summers might take the route former Spartans such as Drew Neitzel and Paul Davis and pursue a basketball career in Europe.
It’s hard to say what type of potential Lucas and Summers have at the NBA level. If there were a way to measure potential, the life of an NBA general manager would be much simpler and much less like the crapshoot it is today.
Although they each have the experience playing on the big stage of Final Fours and in sold-out stadiums across the country, the lights might be dimming on the NBA aspirations of two of MSU’s finest.
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