About a month ago John Hammond pinpointed the small forward position as the Bucks' biggest area of need, so it's perhaps no surprise that the Bucks' first day of workouts saw three of the top four small forward prospects do battle alongside a number of possible second rounders. Danilo Gallinari was absent, but lottery prospects Anthony Randolph, Joe Alexander and Donte Greene were joined by UCLA forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, UAB forward Walter Sharpe, Dayton guard Brian Roberts and the previously mentioned Stanley Burrell from Xavier. The big group allowed the Bucks to do plenty of three on three situations, which is obviously a valuable drill when comparing players slotted for the same position.
Unlike last year, the workouts themselves were not open to the media, but Bucks.com has some Q&A with the players and Charles Gardner also has reaction from the players as well as John Hammond and Scott Skiles. Of course, player interviews after these things never seem to reveal all that much, as everybody always says it went well and tries to say the things that GMs want to hear, but that's all we've got for now. Gardner reports that for Hammond the workout process is another piece of the draft puzzle.
"This is part of the process," said general manager John Hammond after the conclusion of the workout. "You have guys like (director of player personnel) Dave Babcock all year evaluating these kinds of players and those guys have a great handle on how good these players really are. But a part of the draft process is this. It gives our coaches a chance to see the guys. To come out and spend some individual time with them on and off the floor. So it is a part of the process. But to say the exact importance of it, I don't know if it's more important than anything else we do. But it's a part of the process."
Alex had a chance to go down to the media session this afternoon, so he'll have more on today's action later this weekend.