And the first pick of the Fort Wayne Mad Ants was … Alade Aminu.
For now.
Shortly after first-year coach Joey Meyer took the house microphone to inform the several hundred fans who showed up at Crazy Pins for the annual NBA D-League draft party that the team had selected Aminu, Meyer told Thursday night’s gathering to “be alert,” because the 6-foot-10 forward might not be coming to Fort Wayne after all.
With three players from last year’s team in attendance – 6-11 Chris Hunter, 6-10 Anthony Kent and 6-6 guard DeWitt Scott – front-line players weren’t high on the priority list, which is why Aminu could be gone before he even arrives.
Hunter, recently released by the NBA New York Knicks, was the team’s leading scorer and rebounder last season with respective averages of 19.3 and 9.4. Kent, who started 13 games late in the season, averaged 4.2 points and 4.5 rebounds.
“We like Aminu because he’s a heck of an athlete, but we haven’t taken off the board the possibility of a trade, so we’re keeping all our options open right now,” Meyer said.
“We’re talking to some teams about the possibility, but we do like the young guy. If the trade opportunities don’t come through, we’ve got a heck of a player.”
Aminu averaged 11.8 points and eight rebounds a game in his final season at Georgia Tech, where he was the team’s third-leading scorer and second-leading rebounder.
After the No. 1 pick, the Mad Ants went for the kind of player they had indicated they wanted.
The No. 2 choice was Frank Tolbert, a 6-4 guard from Auburn who averaged 13.4 points in the 2007-08 season.
And the No. 3 choice was 6-5 forward Jamelle Cornley from Penn State, who left as the school’s fourth all-time scorer (1,579 points) and rebounder (755). He was also the National Invitation Tournament MVP.
Other Mad Ants selections: fourth round, Ben Woodfox, 6-1 guard; fifth round, Lenny Stokes, 6-6 guard; sixth round, C.J. Anderson, 6-6 guard/forward; seventh round, Andres Sandoval, 6-4 guard; eighth round, A.J. Ratliff, 6-3 guard.
The acquisition of Ratliff, the former Indiana Mr. Basketball who played at IU, was a shot in the dark by Meyer.
“It was the eighth round, he’s from IU, and he can shoot the basketball.” Meyer said.
While the Mad Ants got one IU player, they lost another when Rod Wilmont, who played with the Ants two years ago, was picked up by Erie in the fifth round.
Wilmont became expendable when the Ants got local allocated players Kyle McAlarney and Ryan Ayers, both of whom played at Notre Dame.
But the “big get,” according to Meyer, was when Hunter walked through the doors Thursday night.
Hunter said that the Ants were his “Plan B.”
“I was going to come back here and continue to work and help the team win some games and hopefully get that call back up,” Hunter said.
