Adam

Morrison

His agent, Mark Bartelstein, says he won’t back down from anyone Portland wants him to work out against. The majority of scouts and insiders are calling the Gonzaga product the most marketable player in this draft, “bar none.”

Gay drove past Morrison and dunked hard a couple times, while also swatting the Gonzaga star’s shots a few times. Morrison said he did not perform as well as he did in his first workout in Charlotte. “I didn’t shoot or play as well as I would have liked,” Morrison said. “But I felt good about how I worked out.”

The Bobcats hold the third pick in this month’s NBA draft and, at least for now, nothing else. Their focus is on college basketball’s best from last season -- players like Morrison, LaMarcus Aldridge, Rudy Gay and Tyrus Thomas, or Italian big man Andrea Bargnani

Raps GM Bryan Colangelo name-dropped Adam Morrison after the results were announced, but we’ll have to wait until June 28th to see if Morrison will be the first pick in the draft or not.

The first three picks have fallen into place as expected and Morrison should be able to put some more fans in the seats while burying jumpers for the Cats. He led the nation in scoring as a junior at Gonzaga and should contribute to the Cats from day one this year. However, that probably translates into a late-middle round selection in fantasy drafts.

“You’d say some of the shots he was trying were not good shots because they were such hard shots,” point guard Kevin Burleson said. “But a great scorer makes those.” Burleson also learned something else by playing with Morrison. “Now my official job,” Burleson joked, “is get Adam the ball.” Morrison has certainly gotten off on the right foot in Charlotte, leaving most of his teammates in awe after his first practice game.

Under the rookie salary scale, Morrison will make $6.25 million in the first two years of the deal that runs through 2007-08. The Bobcats hold club options for the next two years of the contract. “We are pleased to sign Adam and to get him on the basketball court with our team,” Bobcats general manager Bernie Bickerstaff said. “He is a quality young man and a fine talent who we are excited to have as part of our organization. We have already seen how his skills will benefit our team and how competitive he is on the court.” Morrison is going to be one of a handful of rookies to have fantasy value this season.

Things appear (and we use that word loosely) that the top three are shaping up to be Andrea Bargnani, LaMarcus Aldridge and Adam Morrison, meaning the Blazers would have a shot at Tyrus Thomas with the fourth pick. As of a few hours ago, the Bulls were still rumored to be locked into Thomas at No. 2, but that has changed. Stay tuned.

Morrison is averaging 18.7 points after three games, which is good enough for No. 5 in the ABA thus far. He has no opt-out clause, but if things continue to go this well for him overseas, it’s possible he could return to the NBA one day.

Yes, the Turkish club is once again in the news, but this time it has nothing to do with Deron Williams. Morrison signed a one-year deal with the team in January.