NBA Daily: Ray Spalding’s Skill Set Goes Beyond College

When you’re asked to sacrifice for the team you play for, you do it.

No matter what you feel your skill set is or where you are best suited to play the game, the head coach always has the final say.

In three seasons at Louisville under both Rick Pitino and David Padgett, local Trinity High School product Ray Spalding played the way he was instructed to. And while listening and doing what’s best in the staff’s eyes were the mature choices to make at the time, he feels he brings a whole lot more to the table at the professional stage.

“At times at Louisville I was told to do certain things that I didn’t have a problem with at all,” Spalding said at the NBA Draft Combine in Chicago. “That was my role so I did it. But they don’t show a lot of my ability to shoot the ball, my ability to put it on the deck. Different things like that.”

A person familiar with Spalding’s talents compared his natural style to that of LaMarcus Aldridge – a player who can stretch the floor and has a feathery touch with his shot.

“That’s what I had to do at Louisville,” Spalding continued. “I didn’t have to shoot tons of threes. I didn’t have to shoot a bunch of jumpers. I didn’t have to put the ball on the deck. I just did what the team asked me to do. My guys are kinda sending out film to different people and letting ‘em know what I’m capable of doing.”

Even though he didn’t get the chance to display his full range of versatility, Spalding’s numbers in his junior year were impressive.

Primarily slotted as a post player and in the paint, the Kentucky native doubled his scoring average from the previous season, scoring 12.3 points per game and pulling down 8.7 rebounds per game. He recorded both a block and a steal per game as well.

Perhaps the most encouraging part of the development was how quickly Spalding stepped into a prominent role. Before his third year with the Cardinals, his floor time was inconsistent. Once the next season came, there were 29 out of 36 contests where he played more than 20 minutes.

His growth and team-first attitude at the collegiate level should be rewarded when it comes to draft time in late June.

But the one thing that may hold teams back from taking a chance on Spalding is his slender frame. He measured in at over 6-foot-10 with the fifth-longest wingspan (7’ 4.5”) out of everybody at the combine, but was one of four power forwards that weighed less than 216 pounds.

In order to match up with anybody in the NBA, really, he’ll need to work on getting some muscle—which is one of the main points that organizations pointed out in Chicago.

“They’re just asking me about my enthusiasm, my purpose,” Spalding said. “Telling me about my weight—of course, gaining more weight and getting more strong than what I am.

“I’m actually a lot stronger than I look. I benched out 13 reps in the 185, so I’ve got a little strength to me. But I definitely do need to put on some more weight.”

Spalding’s experience at the combine was a comfortable one and he’s just enjoying the pre-draft process that everybody in his class is going through right now.

An element he was surprised by in five-on-fives was the way coaches handled things. In college, Spalding was used to screaming and cursing, but that wasn’t the case in his first game playing for a professional staff.

“How they coach and how they handle the players,” Spalding said. “They do a lot of different things. I mean, it’s a huge adjustment from college to being coached in the NBA. It’s a lot more lax. The game’s a lot more intense but the coaching’s just a lot more lax.”

As for the most important thing he aims to take away from all of it, Spalding is all about living in the moment.

“Really just enjoying it and having fun,” Spalding said. “Looking forward to this whole process. I’m grateful and blessed beyond measure to be here with a bunch of these guys. I mean, I definitely belong here, but just really enjoying the experience is all.”