NBA Scouting Director: Draft is without stars, but filled with competent big men

Every team has its chief scout and scouting staff, but the NBA has its own scouting office, which in addition to watching top prospects, organizes and collects the essential and critical information that NBA teams require to assess current and future NBA Draft prospects, helping them know who to look at, what to look for and also who to avoid.

Ben Couch spoke with Ryan Blake, the NBA scouting director, this week. Here are some of his thoughts on the 2013 Draft, which begins at 7 p.m., June 27, at Barclays Center.

On the basic theme of the Draft..

"We’ve got a very deep draft this year. It’s sort of in line with the last three years, where we may not have those guys that make you stand up and go, ‘This is definitely going to be a franchise player.’ But you have so many players deep in the draft that when the 60th pick is finished, every team is going to be calling up several agents, trying to get "I think the bigs, and I lump together the bigs, because we still don't really have that prototypical center.valuable players that are now free agents – into their Summer League."

On the strongest position in the Draft...

"I think the bigs, and I lump together the bigs, because we still don't really have that prototypical center ... "We use an app called Vantage, which is advanaced analytics; it's a new company that is just brilliant. We can go down and compare all the bigs, and we've noticed through the guys that we like, guys like Gorgui Dieng and Mike Muscala from Bucknell – who's a 7-foot guy that can spread the defense and play with his back to the basket, is highly skilled – may even be undervalued."

On whether it will be an active night at Barclays Center...

"It’s going to be one of those drafts. I anticipate there’s going to be a number of trades this year. Last year I don’t think we had as many as years past. But this year, there’s so many good players that some teams will really try to get what they want."