Basketball: Blair drops weight on way to Draft

Anyone looking for DeJuan Blair in the NBA next year might not recognize him at first glance.

In preparation for the June 25th Draft, the former Pitt star has slimmed down considerably and is looking lean and more trim. With his playing weight from last season at around 300 pounds, Blair shed a good chunk of that body fat to drop down to roughly 275 pounds.

When Blair declared for the NBA Draft in the spring, there were some that questioned his decision, citing the fact that his projected mid-to-late first round Draft selection did not merit leaving school early. But with the weight loss, Blair is shooting up Draft boards and showing that his decision to leave school early made sense after all.

“There’s been a bunch of teams looking at me,” Blair said, naming the Phoenix Suns, Chicago Bulls, Milwaukee Bucks, Atlanta Hawks and Indiana Pacers as some of the teams he’s been in contact with.

Numerous mock Drafts have Blair going to the Indiana Pacers at No. 13, the Chicago Bulls at No. 16 andthe New Jersey Nets at No. 11.

Happy Walters, Blair’s agent, said that all the teams picking from No. 9 down into the twenties have shown interest in Blair.

“Teams later in the first round would love for him to get there, but I don’t think he will,” Walters said.

Blair lost the weight because of a change in his diet, Walters said.

“As a student you don’t necessarily eat the best,” Walters said. “But once he got down to IMG Academy in Florida and working out a couple times a day and eating right, the weight just came off.”

By losing the weight, Blair quieted a lot of concerns that those teams may have had about his fitness.

“He helped himself immensely by losing weight because one of the questions teams had about him was his weight and conditioning,” Walters said.

But it’s not only a tinier Blair that has teams in the middle of the first round considering drafting the All-American. Teams like Indiana and New Jersey are in desperate need of strong big men who can haul in rebounds. Blair is that player.

Last year he averaged 15.7 points and 12.3 rebounds a game, including a little more than five offensive rebounds per game, which was second best in the country. Blair also led the country, pulling down 25 percent of missed shots for offensive boards. The next highest number was 18 percent by North Carolina State’s Tracy Smith.

Blair has spent much of the past month working out down in Bradenton, Fla., at the IMG Academy, as well as traveling around the country to work out for numerous NBA teams with the Draft, which will take place tomorrow.

At the workouts Blair has competed against the some of last season’s top big men.

“They’ve had me against [North Carolina’s] Tyler Hansbrough and [Michigan State’s] Goran Suton, but there’s been so many of them,” Blair said. “I think I did pretty good against them and it showed.”

Weight wasn’t the only concern about Blair coming into the Draft. Blair is only 6 feet 5 inches tall.

While in college he faced generally smaller opponents that he could bully around, in the NBA practically every power forward will have a few inches on Blair.

Conversely, Blair has a 7-foot-2 wingspan, so his long reach should help make up for lack of height.

That combined with his lower weight, which makes him a bit quicker, is how Blair plans on matching up against larger players.

Even with all the questions concerning how Blair will match up against the larger players in the NBA, he showed during his time in the Big East he can play in an extremely physical environment and compete against larger players.

Against Connecticut’s Hasheem Thabeet, who is 7-foot-2, Blair put up 22 points and 23 rebounds in Pitt’s win over the Huskies on Feb. 16. Against Luke Harangody of Notre Dame, who is 6-foot-8 and 240 pounds, Blair had 23 points and 22 rebounds on Jan. 31.

“In college DeJuan showed that’s the kind of player he is, a tough aggressive rebounder and defender,” Walters said. “A lot of teams are looking for that and they see him bringing that right away from day one.”

Blair echoed those sentiments saying, “Playing in the Big East has definitely prepared me a lot because of the physicality and everything that comes with it.”