re: Please Anchor

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ETA: nvm, just found out. What a silly reason to eject someone

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Dante Exum from Down Under

Exum, who won't turn 19 until July, excelled both at the Nike Hoop Summit and the Under-19 World Championships in the Czech Republic in 2013. He scored 33 points for Australia against Spain in the world quarterfinals, and more than held his own in Portland. He's already hired an agent and has been encamped in Los Angeles for the last few weeks -- and, given that his agent is also Kobe Bryant's agent, there's been more than a little speculation that the Lakers have targeted the talented teen.

"I bet you it's going to be a Dion Waiters situation where he's not going to work out for everybody; he's only going to work out for one or two teams," an Atlantic Division executive said. "He's not going to work out for Milwaukee. He's pretty good. All that stuff, for me, I like those kind of talented kids. But when you pick high up there, that's when you've got to know."

He is skinny, but he is explosive, possessing a dynamic first step that will allow him to get into the lane. He's already an extremely creative passer. His shot is a work in progress, but scouts said it has improved in the last year, to the point where he could be a combo guard in the pros.

"He's a stud," a Southwest Division executive said. "He's a real one. He's not one of those maybes. He's like [Kansas freshman Andrew Wiggins]. In the summer tournament, nobody could stop him. He was the best player in the world in the World Championships. He's got to gain weight, but that'll come. He's talented. You keep him as a combo, because you want him to learn both spots. I would just put him at the point and let him run it."

But it will take at least some powers of persuasion on the part of a team executive to convince his owner to pull the trigger on a teenager who has yet to play against men, and who spent the last year playing for Lake Ginninderra, the secondary school that is affiliated with Australia's Institute for Sport.

"Very few people saw him play. And that's going to be an issue," a Central Division executive said. "I don't care what anybody says. The fact that he hasn't played ... at least with Enes Kanter [drafted third overall by Utah in 2011], he didn't play the whole season for Kentucky [after being ruled ineligible by the NCAA], but he practiced every single day in Lexington. Teams could go down and see him play. I went to see him play and watch him play five on five with his team. You could see him and watch him play against four or five guys that were going to be pros."

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Clint Capela

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