Waiting all night to be drafted wasn’t at all what Trey Thompkins wanted or what he expected. But in retrospect, he said it might have been exactly what he needed.
At least that was Thompkins’ rationale Friday as the reality of his new life as a second-round draft pick of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers set in.
“It was definitely frustrating,” Thompkins said of seeing 14 power forwards drafted ahead of him before the Clippers chose him with the 37th pick, the seventh of the second round, late Thursday night.
“It’s something I understood, though. A lot of things happen on draft night. Certain people go into certain situations for a reason. I ended up in Los Angeles because it’s a great situation for me, and I’m happy.”
It was a situation made better by familiarity. Ten picks after selecting Thompkins, a 6-foot-10, 245-pound junior from Lithonia, the Clippers chose his Georgia teammate Travis Leslie, a 6-4 guard from Decatur. A third metro Atlantan — second-year forward Al-Farouq Aminu of Norcross — already is on the Clippers’ roster.
“It definitely makes the situation better than it might have been,” Thompkins said. “We’ve all worked out together, and we’ve all spent a lot of time together in years past. Hopefully we can have some success like we used to.”
Thompkins watched the draft at home with family and friends. He said he received “a small heads up” from the Clippers that they were about to draft Leslie, who got the call about a half-hour after Thompkins.
Thompkins immediately called Leslie, a longtime friend and former roommate at UGA, and they got together shortly after the draft concluded.
“I still didn’t believe it until it actually happened,” Thompkins said. “I went over to his house, and we hung out with his buddies and my buddies. We all hung out and spent the night. We kept it low-key, just hanging out with our buddies. But it was pretty fun.”
Clippers management said they drafted Leslie and Thompkins not because they were teammates, but on their own merits.
“We think Leslie can be a lockdown defender, and we want to make sure Blake has competition in the dunk contest next year,” Clippers general manager Neil Olshey quipped. “Trey is a great compliment to Blake [Griffin].”
On the surface it would appear Thompkins could have a hard time earning playing time. He becomes the seventh forward on the Clippers’ roster, including the budding superstar Griffin, who averaged 22.5 points and 12.1 rebounds last season. Thompkins doesn’t see that as a negative.
“I think I can come in and contribute immediately,” he said. “I’ll come in and be going against Blake every day in practice, and he’ll make me better. I look forward to going in under him and learning from him and the coaching staff and everyone who’s out there.”
Leslie and Thompkins will fly to Los Angeles on Sunday night and work out with the team and attend to team responsibilities through Thursday. When they’ll move, where they’ll live, and other things remain up in the air.
“We haven’t gotten that far yet,” Thompkins said. “We barely know anything right now. We don’t really know what the situation is going to be like. We’ve still got a lot to figure out.”
Thompkins earned first-team All-SEC honors the past two seasons. He led the Bulldogs in scoring and rebounding each of his those years (17.1 ppg, 8.0 rpg) and concluded his UGA career with 1,396 points and 693 rebounds, which ranks 13th and 10th, respectively, in school history.
Leslie was a second-team All-SEC pick by SEC coaches last season, when he averaged 14.4 points and 7.2 rebounds (both second behind Thompkins) and also handed out 97 assists.
