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LOS ANGELES — Joel Bolomboy has a future in professional basketball, though his exact stock — like many players preparing for this summer’s NBA draft — is a bit of a mystery.
But one thing is sure for the four-year standout at Weber State: he won’t be back in Utah anytime soon.
Bolomboy has 12 workouts scheduled before the draft, and he told the media Monday after wrapping up his eighth trial with the Los Angeles Clippers that he won’t be working out for the Utah Jazz.
“As of right now, I won’t be working out for the Jazz,” said Bolomboy, the reigning Big Sky player of the year. “Being in Utah for the past four years, I would like to go back. But I’m going to do what my agent tells me to do. If he would like me to go out there, I’ll go out there.
“In talking with the teams that he’s been talking to, my draft range is early second to late first, and outside of the lottery, he pretty much told me I won’t be around (for the Jazz’s pick).”
Many mock draft experiences have Bolomboy as a late second-round draft pick — Draft Express ranks him as the No. 58 prospect, for example.
Bolomboy tries not to focus on the mock drafts, listening instead to his agent Andy Shiffman instead. The prospect’s emissary is constantly in meetings with general managers and front office personnel around the league, and the ex-Weber State standout said he trusts him to get the “inside scoop” on how he is faring in the pre-draft process.
From what those same teams have told him, it’s been positive.
“I think it helped me tremendously,” Bolomboy said after his L.A. workout, which saw him practice against Baylor’s Taurean Prince and Iowa State’s Georges Niang, among others. “I felt really good in both of our games, and on top of that, our team won both games. I’ve been getting positive feedback. I have a lot of workouts.”
Bolomboy nearly tallied a double-double during the scrimmage portion of the workout — no surprise, as he averaged 17.1 points and 12.6 rebounds per game as a senior at Weber State. But just as important to him was that his team won both scrimmages in which he played.
He also measured out at 6 feet, 7½ inches and with a 7-foot-1 wingspan with the highest vertical leap in the Clippers’ group. As the Wildcats’ all-time career leader with 179 blocked shots, those measurables could see him project as a stretch-four at the next level.
He won’t worry about where he plays, though — just what he can control.
“I think I can do a little bit of everything, but I see some stretch-four in me,” Bolomboy said. “My calling card at the next level will be defending and rebounding, and I’m going to play as hard as I can.”
