The Oklahoma City Thunder are turning toward the high school sidelines for a new employee in a scouting position.
The Thunder are hiring Corey Evans, a national high school basketball recruiting analyst from Rivals.com, to be an amateur evaluation scout, according to Yahoo.
High school basketball evaluation is gaining importance with the likelihood that the NBA allows athletes to enter the draft straight out of 12th grade as early as 2022.
Evans is known in the reporting and scouting community as a “tireless worker,” according to Yahoo reporter Pete Thamel, and ESPN recruiting analyst Jonathan Givony called the Thunder’s decision a home run hire.
Homerun hire for OKC. Corey's work ethic, attention to detail and huge network of contacts helped him emerge as one of the most respected voices in the recruiting world the past few years. He's going to move up the NBA ranks quickly. https://t.co/aLrAJI5dMh
— Jonathan Givony (@DraftExpress) September 15, 2020
Oklahoma City, with its large stockpile of draft picks acquired from trading stars Russell Westbrook and Paul George, will have need of strong high school scouting.
The Thunder likely would not be at odds with the idea of drafting a player who doesn’t have college experience.
Darius Bazley elected to not attend college and instead pursue an internship with New Balance. He was drafted by Oklahoma City and, by the end of the year, had become an intriguing player.
The 2022 high school basketball class is headed by Emoni Bates, who has already appeared on a Sports Illustrated cover and is thought by many to be a No. 1 pick straight out of high school if he is allowed to enter.
There are 17 players in the class who are rated as five-star athletes in Rival’s rankings.
