Chad Ford
Nurideen Lindsey, G, Redlands Community College Cougars
Top 100 Rank: 79
Lindsey is part of Steve Lavin's elite St. John's recruiting class for the 2011-12 season. But a number of NBA scouts are wondering whether Lindsey, who's already 20, will ever make it to New York. A number of top scouts told me that they have Lindsey projected as a solid second-round pick should he declare for the draft. A few scouts have him in the first round.
Who is he? Lindsey is a super athletic, lightning-quick guard who draws comparisons by some scouts to a poor man's Iverson and Monta Ellis. Lindsey is an elite scorer who uses quickness and explosiveness to get to the basket. Lindsey averaged 38 ppg as a junior in high school, and at Redlands Community College he scored 48 points in his first game.
He dropped out of school his senior year -- ending a verbal commitment to La Salle and didn't play for the next two years until the death of his best friend and his younger brother in 2009 pushed him to decide to do something with his talents.
Lindsey is dominating at the community college level, but can he do the same thing in the NBA? Some scouts worry that he's undersized for his position, that he doesn't have a jump shot, that he hasn't played great competition for three years and that his off-court problems might scare teams away. But others say he's awesome: "I haven't seen a kid with his quickness and scoring ability in a while," one NBA scouts told ESPN.com. "It's not easy to gauge given the competition, but I know fast, and he's fast. And I know scorers, and he can score in any league."
http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/blog?name=nba_draft&id=6057038