Four former NC State basketball players, including three who were never drafted, received the chance of a lifetime earlier this month to prove to NBA scouts and coaches their names deserve to be on full-time NBA rosters.
After surprisingly going unselected in the June 23 NBA Draft, Cat Barber quickly signed an undrafted free-agent contract with the New Orleans Pelicans and competed for the organization in the Las Vegas Summer League.
Barber averaged less than 12 minutes yet still put up 6.2 points, 1.2 rebounds and 0.5 assists a game before taking an accidental knee to the head July 13 against the Miami Heat, cutting his summer league run short.
Despite not getting a ton of playing time as he is used to, Barber showed off his skills, especially his world-class quickness, to not just the Pelicans organization but to 29 other NBA teams who might be interested in signing him should he not make the New Orleans roster.
Point guard Lorenzo Brown, who declared early for the 2013 NBA Draft following a three-year career with the Wolfpack, has bounced around the NBA, as well as other professional basketball leagues, in the three seasons since being selected 52nd overall.
Brown helped his chances of making the Detroit Pistons’ regular-season roster and being a mainstay with an NBA team for a full season for the first time of his career (his career-high of NBA games played in a season is 29) after a strong showing in the Orlando Summer League.
In Orlando Summer League action, Brown ranked second among all players in steals per game with 3.6 and finished in the top 15 scoring with 14.2 points. He was the second-leading Pistons’ scorer, averaging only 1.8 points fewer than the eighth overall pick of the 2015 NBA Draft, Stanley Johnson. He shot an impressive 53 percent from the field, and averaged 3.4 rebounds and two assists per game.
Guard Trevor Lacey, another early Wolfpack entry to the NBA Draft, who went unselected last year, joined the Los Angeles Lakers Las Vegas Summer League team. Weeks prior to agreeing to play for the Lakers in summer league, he signed a one-year deal, worth reportedly more than $200,000, with Italy’s Dinamo Sassari.
Lacey played a combined 28 minutes in just two games for Los Angeles, averaging 6.5 points, one rebound, 0.5 assists and one steal.
Barring unforeseen circumstances, Lacey will return to Italy’s top professional basketball league, and one of the best in Europe as a whole, to play out his one-year contract with Sassari.
Forward CJ Williams played for the San Antonio Spurs in both the Utah Summer League (three games) and the Las Vegas Summer League (five games).
In eight total games, Williams averaged 5.6 points, 1.9 rebounds, 0.5 assists and 0.4 steals per game. He shot 40 percent from 3-point range, a number especially impressive for a player at the forward position.
