Utah Jazz: Luke Nevill unleashes secret tool in workout — a jump shot

He's got the height.

At 7-foot-2, there's no question about that.

But can he play in the NBA?

Luke Nevill thinks he can, and — equipped with something of a secret weapon — he's spent the past month or so trying to prove just that to teams around the league.

Sunday morning was the Jazz's turn to sneak a peek, and Nevill — a senior center from the University of Utah — used the opportunity to unleash the tool he's been honing for some time now.

The big Aussie, it seems, has a jump shot.

Who knew?

Nevill, 23, suggests he did all along — and that, after a five-year college career in which he relied mostly on a little left-hand hook, he's just has been waiting for the chance to pull it from his bag.

"I wasn't able to do that much in college," he said of utilizing the jumper, "but I've really kind of worked on that.

"In practice, I used to shoot the ball all the time. But come game time, I had a job to do, and (Utes) Coach (Jim) Boylen said, 'Stay in the post; that's the best way you're gonna help us.' So that's what I did," Nevill added. "(But) I always knew I could shoot it, and he knew I could shoot it, so it's just (about) getting an opportunity to shoot it now. That's a good thing."

A much-noticed thing, apparently, too.

"A lot of teams are surprised at my range," Nevill said after completing his 10th and final workout in advance of Thursday night's NBA Draft.

The whirlwind tour has taken him to locales such as Minnesota and New Jersey for massive group auditions attended by scouts and general managers representing multiple franchises, not to mention visits with individual teams, including Indiana and Houston.

"They didn't know I could shoot the ball as well as I can," he said, "because they haven't really seen me do that."

Jazz player personnel vice president Walt Perrin, for one, attests to Nevill's assertion about his shot.

"You don't see many 7-2 guys, and he shoots the ball pretty well for his size," Perrin said of the prospect who is widely considered a second-round hopeful Thursday. "I mean, he's very good offensively. And he can block shots."

Still, Nevill — who averaged between 15 and 17 points per game during his final three seasons in school, and who left the Utes as their all-time career leader in totals shots blocked — has a ways to go before he can hush naysayers such as ESPN.com draft specialist Chad Ford, who suggest most of his pro career may be spent in Europe or even his native Australia.

"I think he's got to get stronger, first of all," Perrin said. "And I'm talking about total body strength — I mean his legs, and his upper body. I think he's got to increase his stamina, because it's going to be more of an up-and-down game, probably, at our level than it was at the U."