DeShawn Sims starts trying to make it as a professional basketball player tonight in Portsmouth
DeShawn Sims’ dreams for a future in professional basketball will begin in something similar to the place he started - a high school basketball gym.
The Portsmouth Invitational Tournament, an annual gathering of seniors trying to find pro homes in the NBA or Europe, kicks off today in Virginia. Sims, a four-year standout for the Wolverines, will play in the four-day, three-game event for the Portsmouth Sports Club.
“I’m excited about it,” Sims said last week. “I’m excited to be able to showcase, show my skills.”
U-M basketball player DeShawn Sims answers questions during a press conference that was held to announce Manny Harris' decision to leave U-M early to enter the NBA Draft.
Angela J. Cesere | AnnArbor.com
The 6-foot-8 forward averaged 16.8 points and 7.6 rebounds for Michigan and was an all-Big Ten second team pick this year. Now, he becomes merely one of many highly-decorated college players trying to make money playing basketball.
“Can he become a better shooter? Can he improve his ballhandling? Can he become a better defender? Yes, yes. Is he pretty good at those, too? Yes, he is,” said Ryan Blake, a director of scouting for the NBA. “But at what level, and how does that translate to the NBA. Now, what the positives are is that you’ve got a guy that has a lot of versatility and if he can do that on a consistent, if he can do that consistently then you might want to bring him in.
“He’s not going to be a go-to guy so we’re going to bring him in, fourth, fifth option and his primary role may be to defend, distribute and create opportunity for when they come to him. “
Sims is one of four forwards on the Portsmouth Sports Club team, joined by Siena’s Alex Franklin, California’s Patrick Christopher and Fresno State’s Sylvester Seay. Initially, both St. Mary’s Omar Samhan and West Virginia’s Da’Sean Butler were supposed to play on Sims’ team but pulled out due to injury.
Eric Boateng, a 6-foot-10 center and former McDonald’s All American, is also on the team along with guards Denis Clemente (Kansas State), Marquez Haynes (Texas-Arlington) and Tory Jackson (Notre Dame).
Sims is one of four Big Ten players in Portsmouth along with Wisconsin guard Trevon Hughes, Minnesota guard Lawrence Westbrook and Michigan State forward Raymar Morgan, a late addition to the tournament.
For all there, it is the beginning.
“That’s the first step,” Sims said. “It’s just me going, doing what I’ve been doing for the past eight, nine years. No nerves, no excitement.
“I’m going in there to showcase and play my hardest.”
Director of Scouting for the NBA Ryan Blake on Sims: "You have a guy at 6-8, 235 is a good athlete, good IQ, ability to spread the defense with some outside shooting ability, can also play in the post. If you look at the guys in the league right now, they are players so with versatility and with upside, those are positives. A guy that for the past two years shot 50 percent field goals and a guy that has some range. Not a great long range shooter but that can improve with time as well. So he has a lot of those skills. He’s improved his rebounding, his scoring and his defense has always been pretty good."
Michael Rothstein covers University of Michigan basketball for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558, by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow along on Twitter @mikerothstein.