My choices for best of the LeBron Skills Academy

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LAS VEGAS – As the final game of the four-day camp was getting set to tip off at about 7 o’clock Saturday night, the LeBron James Skills Academy was as noteworthy for the players not playing as it was for the guys about to play in the championship game.

Stephen Zimmerman, Isaiah Briscoe, DeAndre Ayton, Eric Davis, Malik Monk, Mickey Mitchell, Malik Newman and Ben Simmons – eight of the upper-tier prospects who were in uniform the players begin working out in the Cashman Center late Wednesday morning – were among the players who didn’t play Saturday because, a) they were injured; b) they were fatigued and “resting” for the Nike-front EYBL Championships (Peach Jam) in Savannah next week or, c) had already flown home.

But some of the very best of the 80 or so players who were on hand on Saturday were still engaged and spry enough to hook up in the title game in which “North Carolina” (the eight camp teams were named for ACC and Big Ten schools) knocked off “Syracuse”, 65-52.

The Tar Heels’ eight-man roster included California’s best big man (Ivan Rabb of Oakland Bishop O’Dowd) and one of its better guards (Aaron Holiday of North Hollywood Campbell Hall, the youngest sibling of Jru Holiday of the New Orleans Pelicans).

Both were particularly effective in a first half that ended with their team up, 34-24.

And during the second half the team got outstanding efforts from guard Jake Lindsey (Salt Lake City Olympus) – the son of Utah Jazz General Manager Dennis Lindsey – as well as forward Cody Riley (a sophomore-to-be from Chatsworth, CA, Sierra Canyon) and another forward, Aaron Falzon (Mount Hermon, MA, Northfield), who was one of the best deep jump shooters in the camp. Junior-to-be point guard Cassius Winston (Detroit Jesuit) also played a key role in helping the team pull away after the brief intermission.

“Syracuse” (which played with just six kids in uniform) was led by Henry Ellenson (Rice Lake, WI) and Miles Bridges (Huntington, WV, Prep).

Ellenson played most of the camp for Duke but joined Syracuse when rosters were being decimated by the aforementioned reasons.

In camp that included a dozen or so of the very best 5s (centers) and 4s (power forwards) in the Class of 2015, no one was consistently better over the four days than was Ellenson.

And no player – regardless of position or class – had a set of performances that approached that of Ellenson, whose ability to score from the post, off the drive, in transition or from deep range was startlingly impressive.

Bridges, a standout for Michigan-based The Family in the EYBL spring, made a compelling on-court argument over the four days as to why he deserves to be in any conversation about the very best of the Class of 2016.

The following three lists (in alpha sequence) make up my “best” choices based upon the games and Wednesday and Thursday morning workouts I watched.

Some of the top players in the camp – including Isaiah Briscoe (Roselle, NJ, Catholic), the New Jersey Playaz standout that I believe to be the No. 1 point guard in the Class of 2015 and Malik Newman (Jackson, MS, Callaway) – were not included in the lists because they played two days or less in camp competition.

The “Top Five Surprises” were guys I either hadn’t see a lot of or not at all, and had no real idea how good they are until this past week.

Players such as Lindsey and Tres Tinkle (Missoula, MT, Hellgate), the son of new Oregon State Coach Wayne Tinkle, may have qualified as “surprises” to some recruiters and other “scouts”.

But I’d seen each a few times in the spring and had a strong sense for what kind of players they are now and what kind of college players they have a chance to be.

The top prospect among the players from the Classes of 2016 and ’17 was 6-11 DeAndre Ayton, who is from the Bahamas but has been living in San Diego for approaching two years.

A lot of college coaches and NBA general managers, personnel directors and scouts were getting their first in-person look at the sophomore-to-be Ayton.

But his efforts here – he was borderline dominant in stretches of some of the games, even while matching against guys two or three years older – didn’t surprise me, either. I got long looks at him during the Pangos Junior All-American (February of last year in Redondo Beach) and Pangos All-American (last June in Long Beach) camps, as well as several other Southland events, including the Southern California Review in Garden Grove in April.

BEST OF CLASS OF 2015

Esa Ahmad (Florida)/6-7/Shaker Heights, OH

Antonio Blakeney (Georgetown)/6-4/Orlando Oak Ridge

Deyonta Davis (Syracuse)/6-9/Muskegon, MI

Cheick Diallo (Kentucky)/6-8/Centerreach, NY, Our Savior

Aaron Holiday (UNC)/6-1/N. Hollywood, CA, Campbell Hall

Malachi Richardson (Syracuse)/6-5/Trenton, NJ, Catholic

Ben Simmons (Georgetown)/6-8/Montverde, FL, Academy

Henry Ellenson (Duke/Syracuse)/6-9/Rice Lake, WI

Ivan Rabb (UNC)/6-9/Oakland Bishop O’Dowd

Stephen Zimmerman (Connecticut)/6-10/Las Vegas Bishop Gorman

 

TOP FIVE SURPRISES

Haanif Cheatham (Kentucky)/6-4/Pembroke Pines, FL (2015)

Ted Kapita (Michigan State)/6-8/Huntington, WV, Prep (2016)

Aaron Falzon (UNC)/6-8/Mount Hermon, MA, Northfield (2015)

A.J. Harris (Kentucky)/5-9/Dayton Dunbar (2015)

Cassius Winston (UNC)/6-2/Detroit Jesuit (2016)

 

BEST OF UNDERCLASSMEN

De’Andre Ayton (Florida)/6-11/San Diego Balboa City School (2017)

Marques Bolden (Georgetown)/6-10/Desoto, TX (2016)

Brian Bowen (Florida)/6-6/Saginaw, MI (2017)

Miles Bridges (Syracuse)/6-6/Huntington, WV, Prep (2016)

De’Aaron Fox (Georgetown)/6-4/Katy, TX, Cypress Lakes (2016)

Dedric Lawson (Duke)/6-8/Jacksonville, FL, Country Day (2016)

Malik Monk (UNC)/6-3/Bentonville, AR (2016)

Jamal Murray (Florida)/6-4/Ontario, CN, Orangeville (2016)

Omari Spellman (Connecticut)/6-8/Granby, MA, MacDuffie (2016)

Jayson Tatum (Connecticut)/6-7/St. Louis Chaminade (2016)