You may have heard that Greivis Vasquez worked out with the Washington Wizards yesterday. And while that's a wet dream for some DMV-area basketball fans, Vasquez's backcourt partner at Maryland, Eric Hayes, got his own chance with the Wiz, one day after Vasquez. And if Wizards Insider's report on the workout is any indication, Hayes made the most of it:
[One] drill called for each player to take a shot from the left and right ends of the foul line until seven shots are made. In between taking shots, the player must run and touch the sideline boundary with his foot. If a player misses, he must make a layup, run to the sideline and then shoot again from the elbow.
Hayes had no problems at all. The 6-4 Hayes made all seven shots consecutively, and on the final two, he had Wizards Coach Flip Saunders trying to distract him by yelling and clapping.
I smile inside when I think of Flip Saunders jumping up and down and clapping while Hayes drains threes in his face. Maybe that's just me. A video of the workout can be found on the Wizards' official site (Hayes is #1 in black), and perhaps one of Saunders' high-pitched shrieks can be heard in Hayes' second shot. While unconfirmed because it comes from off-screen, it may indicate that Saunders has a ridiculous vocal range.
Even with this solid workout in tow, Hayes will have an uphill battle to get his named called on draft night. He'll probably get a few post-draft tryouts and may even catch on in the D-League, but all indications (and relevant mock drafts) point to him taking his game to Europe somewhere, where his jump-shooting and heady play can flourish.
But if anything could make him stick, it'd probably be blowing the doors off a workout for D.C., which has always been kind to former Terps. Maybe he'll get a chance as an undrafted free agent in D.C. and hang around.