Former LSU basketball player Tasmin Mitchell didn’t have to wait long to hear from an NBA team after going undrafted in the 2010 NBA Draft.
The former Louisiana Gatorade Player of the Year received a call to join the Cleveland Cavaliers, who didn’t have a draft pick, just hours after the draft ended.
The Denham Springs native said he has a “real good shot” at making the team after a strong summer.
He averaged 5.8 points per game in the NBA Summer League, shooting 45.8 percent from the field and 70 percent from the free-throw line.
His 5.4 rebounds per game were third-best on the Cavs, and his 1.2 steals per game were second-best.
“I got a lot of playing time in the Summer League to show them what I had,” said Mitchell, who played in all five Summer League games for the Cavs. “That was a great opportunity.”
Mitchell is LSU’s all-time third-leading scorer (1,989 points), fifth in field goals made (762), sixth in rebounds (950) and eighth in steals (190).
“It goes without saying he’s probably one of the best players who’s ever played here,” said LSU coach Trent Johnson.
Mitchell said having a veteran on his team like Antawn Jamison, who has averaged 19.8 points in 12 NBA seasons, makes adjusting to the NBA much easier.
“He’s teaching me a lot,” Mitchell said. “He gets on me when I do wrong, and I’m just all ears.”
It’s possible for undrafted free agents to salvage strong NBA careers. Ben Wallace, a four-time Defensive Player of the Year, and Bruce Bowen, an eight-time All-NBA Defensive Team selection, played stout defense en route to a combined four NBA titles in 26 NBA seasons.
Now former LSU basketball player Garrett Temple may be following a similar route to Bowen’s.
Temple, who was on the All-Southeastern Conference Defensive Team his senior season at LSU, went undrafted before cycling through two teams and landing on Bowen’s former team, the San Antonio Spurs.
The Baton Rouge native was the all-time leader in minutes played at LSU with 4,432, averaging 33.1 minutes per game, and had more assists than turnovers every year.
“Defensively, he was probably as good a player as you could have,” Johnson said.
Temple, who has played mostly point guard for the Spurs, said he’ll continue playing tenacious defense but hopes he doesn’t get labeled as simply a defensive specialist.
“Defense is what I did well in college and what got me here, and I’m going to continue to play defense,” he said. “But I’m going to build my offensive game a little more so I can be a force on both ends.”
Temple played for Houston and Sacramento last season before joining the playoff-bound Spurs.
“I was very fortunate to end up with a team like the Spurs that has so many great veteran players,” Temple said. “It seemed like the right choice.”
He started four of his 13 games with the Spurs, averaging 6.2 points per game. He averaged 5 points per game in 27 total games last season.
Temple scored 11 points and recorded two steals in his only Summer League game this year before spraining his ankle, which he said is now 100 percent.
“It was about a six-week rehab process,” Temple said. “But I stayed in San Antonio most of the time, and we did what we needed to do to get it back right.”
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Contact Rowan Kavner at [email protected]