Five athletes from the Pac-12 heard their names called on Thursday night at the NBA Draft in New York, with three of them coming in the top 10. Four of those picks came in the first round, tying the Pac-12 with the Atlantic Coast Conference for the second most picks from a conference this season. Only the Southeastern Conference had more with seven.
Headlining this year’s class from the Pac-12 were Cal’s Jaylen Brown (third overall to Boston), UW’s Marquese Chriss (eighth overall by Sacramento, traded to Phoenix), and the reigning Pac-12 Player of the Year from Utah, Jakob Poetl (ninth overall to Toronto).
Rounding out the first round was Washington’s super-freshman Dejounte Murray, who was projected as a late lottery-pick but fell all the way to the Spurs at 29th. Murray averaged 16.1 points, 6.0 rebounds and 4.4 assists during his freshman campaign en route to earning second team All-Pac-12 and Pac-12 All Freshman Team honors.
Coming in at the 60th and final pick — dubbed Mr. Irrelevant in the NBA world — was Cal’s Tyrone Wallace who was drafted by the Utah Jazz. Wallace led Cal with 15.3 points per-game last season. While being known as Mr. Irrelevant may not be a great moniker, the last Pac-12 player to claim that title was Washington’s Isaiah Thomas in 2011. Thomas averaged 20 points per-game this season and received All-Star honors for the first time in his career.
Other notable Pac-12 standouts who did not hear their names called were Oregon State’s Gary Payton II and Oregon’s own Elgin Cook. Payton, however, didn’t remain unsigned for long. Within an hour of the draft being over, Payton signed a three-year deal with the Houston Rockets. The defensive-minded guard is probably going to have to earn most of that contract, since chances are that most of it is not guaranteed.
Cook, the Pac-12 Tournament MVP, put together a very solid senior season and saw his draft stock shoot up, especially following the NCAA Tournament where he was by far Oregon’s most consistent performer. Cook does have options open now as he can still garner a Summer league invite from an NBA team. Or Cook could forgo the NBA entirely and take his talents overseas.
Follow Gus Morris on Twitter @JustGusMorris