Summer league’s
key for EnglishWallace says his former player
still has options in the NBA
Carl English has had to prove himself throughout his basketball career, and he'll try to do it one more time this summer.
After not being selected in Thursday's NBA Draft, the former Hawaii guard is planning to work his way into the league by playing in an NBA summer league.
"We were sure there would be a number of teams that would express some interest in having Carl attend a couple of the summer leagues and it looks like that is starting to pan out," Harold Cipin, English's agent, said yesterday.
Cipin said he doesn't expect a deal to be finalized before the end of the weekend and that he should have a better idea of where English will be headed early next week.
English was not among the 58 players selected Thursday and the summer league will give him another chance to catch the eye of NBA team officials.
"I think now he realizes he's a free agent and that has some advantages," Cipin said. "There's more than one way to get into the league and that's what we're going to focus on now."
Hawaii coach Riley Wallace spoke with English yesterday and said his former player was still recovering from the disappointment of draft night.
"He got knocked down to the floor, but he said, 'I'll get back up and fight back,' " Wallace said. "The phone's ringing, so he has some options."
Wallace said Indiana and Minnesota are among the leading candidates to sign English to a summer league deal. But whichever team English signs with may not necessarily be the one he ends up with when training camps open.
Former UH guard Anthony Carter played for Dallas in a summer league, but eventually signed with Miami.
Wallace said playing under game conditions will give English a better shot at impressing NBA scouts than in the individual drills he went through in his pre-draft workouts.
"It'll be five-on-five basketball and not all that individual stuff and he'll excel better at that," Wallace said.