Australia’s latest NBA player Johnny Furphy has opened up on his “tough” slide out of the first round and comforting words from his new head coach at the Indiana Pacers.
Indiana traded up a spot to take Furphy 35th overall in the draft after the Victorian, who was expected to be taken in the back-half of the first round, was overlooked by other teams.
ESPN had Furphy as its No.18 ranked prospect while The Athletic, Bleacher Report, The Ringer and CBS Sports all had the 19-year-old going in the late 20s in their mock drafts.
Furphy lifted the lid on his fall down the draft board in an interview with The Kansas City Star on Friday, describing the experience as “tough”.
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“It was just very uncertain,” the former Kansas Jayhawks wing told The Star.
“It’s such a wide range, with so many moving pieces. It was tough, but at the end of the day, it’s wherever the best fit is.”
Furphy added that it was “pretty amazing” to finally hear his name called, with the family deciding to watch the second round in a hotel room after a long wait in the green room on Thursday.
Furphy’s father Rich told ‘RSN Breakfast with Harf’ on Friday morning it was a “huge relief” to see his son drafted after the previous day left him “emotionally and physically spent”.
“There’s been a lot of background conversations going on today to try get to this point,” Rich said.
“Last night was hard work. It wasn’t the plan, frankly, so it’s good to be in this spot.
“To be honest, it was pretty hard because you get invited in there… and that’s based on pretty firm feedback from clubs that that’s what they’re going to do and it’s not a guarantee clearly as it played out.
“There’s the whole fanfare and the build-up and it’s huge and then to be sitting there and sitting right up the front and for it to keep ticking over the way it did, by the time it finished we got home at 1am and he was emotionally and physically spent, as were we, but he carried it all. It was hard work.
“We were in a hotel room. We didn’t go because we’d sort of had enough of it, the whole ceremony, so we were in a room with his agent and his mum and a few other people.”
Furphy’s former coach at Kansas, Bill Self, described it as a “very tough and humbling night” for the Australian.
“The anticipation of being in the green room and the assurance that he and his representation had been told that he would be drafted didn’t turn out that way. It was a tough night and I thought Johnny handled it very maturely and very well, but it was not easy for he or his family.”
Furphy was one of two green room invitees to miss out on selection in the first round, with Kyle Filipowski also passed up by a number of teams before the Duke big man was drafted by the Jazz.
While Utah already had the 32nd pick it used to draft Filipowski, the Pacers traded up from the No.36 spot to guarantee they got Furphy, not expecting him to be available that late.
Rich said that Indiana coach Rick Carlisle told Furphy in a phone call on Friday that the team was “hot on him for a while” and “weren’t expecting” to get the Australian given the fact it didn’t have a pick until the second round.
Carlisle told Furphy the franchise is “really excited” to have drafted him and believe the 19-year-old is a “great fit” given their tendency to push the pace, especially in transition.
Indiana averaged 102.16 possessions per game during the regular season, ranking second in the league, while 13.4 per cent of their points came in the fast break, ranking sixth.
“At the end of the day, it’s about wherever the best fit is, and I think Indiana is the spot,” added Furphy.
Self agreed, describing it as a “good landing place” for Furphy.
“It’s an up and coming franchise. They’ve got really good players,” Self said.
“I spoke with them this morning and they were excited about Johnny… I think they will do a great job in developing him.”
The Pacers received strong marks across the board for the Furphy pick, with The Ringer’s Danny Chau and CBS Sports’ Kyle Boone giving it an ‘A’ while ESPN’s Kevin Pelton described the Australian’s slide as “legitimately shocking”.
“The Pacers know what fuels their high-octane offensive attack: shooting, athleticism, size. They’re building on a strength here by trading for Furphy,” Chau wrote.
“The Aussie out of Kansas is the kind of player who keeps an offense churning—a high-fiber wing, if you will. He finds his way to open space. He drifts and sprints into daylight on the perimeter. He cuts hard for open dunks.
“He’s not necessarily an elite shooter, but that’s not as much of an issue given his size (around 6-foot-9 in shoes) and athleticism attacking closeouts. Is he much more than that? Maybe not, but at 19, that’s an awfully nice place to start.”
Boone, meanwhile, described Furphy’s fall out of the first round as “the biggest surprise slip” and wrote it was an “excellent value” pick for the Pacers, giving them a “young, developmental prospect who has size and shot-making versatility”.
Elsewhere, Pelton had Furphy as the fifth-best prospect in this year’s class based on his stats-based projections. You can read more about how his projections work here.
He wrote on Friday that if Furphy develops as a shooter with size, he would fit well alongside Pascal Siakam in Indiana’s frontcourt. Defensive improvement would obviously be needed too.
But given the improvements Furphy has made in the past 12 months to facilitate his rapid rise up draft boards, there is every chance he could prove to be the “steal” ESPN’s Jonathan Givony described him as on Friday.
“His ability to operate under pressure and perform when it matters has been the key to it and we’re constantly amazed at how he does it,” Furphy’s dad Rich said.
“This has been a tough process but he’s handled tough situations in the last couple of years at each step.”