Any teams who haven't made the trip to Spain to check out Mario Hezonja may want to squeeze one in before Thursday's draft.
The consensus top-10 prospect has been rendered unable to workout for teams, or even in an individual showcase like Kristaps Porzingis, due to his ongoing commitments in the Spanish ACB league. While that's kept teams from getting a more intimate knowledge of him, his skills, and his overall game, it has to be considered a positive – Hezonja is absent because he's playing important minutes in the finals for the world's second-best league.
Hezonja made a major statement less than a week from the draft, putting up one of his best pro performances in Game 1 of the ACB Finals on Friday.
Related: Scouting Report - Mario Hezonja, SF, Croatia
While his Barcelona squad fell 78-72 to Real Madrid, Hezonja scored a game-high 18 points, drained five threes, and grabbed five rebounds. He played a season-high 25 minutes, a major statement of his progress given the quality of the league and the prominence of the situation.
Putting up those numbers, at age 20, against names like Sergio Rodriguez, Rudy Fernandez, Sergio Llull, Gustavo Ayon, and Andres Nocioni is no easy feat, and its expected that Game 2 on Sunday could be flush with NBA scouts.
Hezonja entered play Friday averaging 5.8 points and two rebounds in 63 games while knocking down 37.3 percent of his threes. ESPN ranks him as the No. 6 overall prospect in the draft, DraftExpress has him one spot higher, and nobody seems to think he'll slide past No. 8 on draft night.
