With Jalen Suggs and Co., NBA prospects from Minnesota 'starting to rain down now'

Minnesota basketball history was made during the 2020 NBA draft with four players from the talent-rich state hearing their names called, doubling the previous record.

One year later, Minnesota has another group of intriguing draft prospects waiting their turn.

The headliner is projected top-five pick Jalen Suggs, the athletic point guard gifted enough to lead Gonzaga as a freshman to the NCAA title game last season.

The next tier, Jericho Sims, McKinley Wright and Matthew Hurt, hope strong workouts and scrimmages help them join Suggs on draft night July 29.

"We're kind of looked at as a spot that isn't really known for producing top basketball players," Suggs said about the Minnesota hoops scene. "But you looked in the past couple of years what we put out – and the consistency. It's proof we have a lot of basketball talent."

In 2015, Minnesotans Rashad Vaughn and Tyus Jones were first-round picks. The state produced just one NBA draft pick over the next four years, but then last year, Zeke Nnaji, Tyrell Terry, Daniel Oturu and Tre Jones all heard their names called among the draft's 60 selections over two rounds.

Nnaji was a first-round pick. Oturu, the first Gophers player drafted in 16 years, went in the second round, along with Tre Jones and Terry.

The momentum is building. Suggs, the 20-year-old floor general, has a chance to be the highest player drafted from Minnesota since Hibbing's Kevin McHale went third overall from the U in 1980.

Sims, who played under the radar at Texas, is one of the draft's biggest stock risers. Once projected to go undrafted, he played himself into a potential second-rounder at last week's NBA draft combine.

Wright and Hurt, also needing a stock boost, stood out alongside him in Chicago.

"Minnesota is starting to wake a lot of people up," said Wright, a former Colorado and Champlin Park standout. "People tell me all the time, 'We didn't know Minnesota had good basketball players.' ' Over these last couple years, starting with Rashad and Tyus going to the NBA, it's starting to rain down now."

Land of 10,000 prospects

With 27 seconds left in last Saturday's combine scrimmage, Sims gave scouts another reason to fall in love with what the bouncy 6-foot-10 Minneapolis native could bring to an NBA team.

After testing off the charts with a 44-inch vertical earlier in the week, Sims used his wings to go airborne for an alley-oop dunk that easily put his head at rim level.

That put an exclamation point on his breakout performance in the windy city.

"Wow, if that kid doesn't move up the draft board," ESPN analyst LaPhonso Ellis said, "I guess I just don't know basketball."

Five years ago, Sims, Wright and Hurt were leading D1 Minnesota's AAU program to the top of the Adidas summer circuit. At the NBA combine, they teamed up again.

"It's cool seeing some familiar faces," Sims said. "It just shows that we had a really good class coming out of there, and Minnesota is continuing to produce a lot of talent."

Sims was a force at the rim and on the boards with 18 points and six rebounds in his last scrimmage.

Wright was tenacious defensively and displayed his floor leadership and all-around game with eight points, seven assists and five rebounds. At 6-9 and bulked up to 230 pounds, Hurt was tougher inside but showed off his ability to stretch the floor from three-point range with 14 points and four rebounds.

"My first year of AAU, I was fortunate enough to play with those guys," Hurt, a Duke forward, said. "Just to see how much better they've gotten since then … just being able to play with them was probably the best thing at this camp."

Soaring Suggs

Two years ago, Suggs and Chet Holmgren were leading Minnehaha Academy to a Class 2A state title at the Target Center.

It won't be long before they both are playing in the NBA, but first Holmgren will play for Gonzaga next season. Suggs will have a head start on the pros.

"I'm really just enjoying the process," Suggs said. "This is fun. I've been waiting for this for a long time."

The Timberwolves lost an opportunity to make him a hometown hero after their top pick this year went to Golden State. Suggs still can change another franchise's future real soon.

After the draft lottery, Suggs was projected by ESPN to go No. 4 to the Toronto Raptors. He didn't participate in the NBA combine last week, but he hasn't stopped working.

"I love getting better," Suggs said. "That's something I've always loved to do. Improve my game, mentally and physically. I feel my body getting stronger. I feel myself getting better and sharper."

Decision time

Suggs had less to prove before the draft than others with Minnesota ties, such as former Gophers guard Marcus Carr and ex-Marquette and Prior Lake forward Dawson Garcia.

Both declared for the NBA draft but had until July 7 to pull out and regain their college eligibility. They entered the NCAA transfer portal to keep their options open and have the ability to instantly impact any college program in the country.

Carr and Garcia shined in the NBA G League Elite Camp, but they were not invited to the NBA combine. That led to Carr, who was already in the portal, deciding to withdraw his name from the NBA draft on Wednesday.

The 6-11 Garcia led the G League camp in scoring, which only added interest from teams once he entered the portal recently. He has heard from the Gophers and visited North Carolina and Illinois.

Before his eye-opening performance in Chicago, Sims was on a similar path as Carr and Garcia with a big decision looming – stay in college or turn pro.

Sims was testing the draft process and keeping his options open, but he signed with a non-NCAA certified agency Wednesday that ended his college eligibility.

Now he's part of a group of Minnesotans heating things up this summer by filling up draft projections.

"It's been a big jump," Sims said. "Going from somebody people weren't talking about and didn't really know at first. Now I'm finally here living out my dream."