Henry Ellenson and Diamond Stone were two of the most prolific players in Wisconsin high school basketball history.
Appropriately, both Ellenson, who starred at Rice Lake High School, and Stone, who was a standout at Whitefish Bay Dominican, shared Wisconsin’s Mr. Basketball award last season as seniors.
While Ellenson moved on to Marquette and Stone moved on to Maryland, there is a chance they could end up being teammates in the NBA next season. The Denver Nuggets have three first-round picks in the June 23 draft, and they are considering Stone and Ellenson as potential selections.
The 6-foot-10 Stone is in Denver today for a workout with the Nuggets, and the 6-11 Ellenson is expected to arrive in the Mile High City later in the week to meet with Nuggets officials.
The Nuggets have the seventh overall pick, an area in which Ellenson is expected to be drafted. They also have the 15th and 19th picks, where Stone is generally projected to be selected.
Both Ellenson and Stone have been zig-zagging across the country in recent weeks for team workouts. Stone has already worked out for the Phoenix Suns (4th, 13th and 28th picks), Toronto Raptors (9 and 27), Atlanta Hawks (21) and Charlotte Hornets (22).
Stone averaged 12.4 points and 5.5 rebounds last season for the Terrapins. He set a Maryland freshman single-game scoring record with 41 points against Penn State, 32 coming in the second half. Ex-NBA power forward Joe Smith held the old Maryland freshman record of 33 points set in 1993.
Stone is also expected to workout with several other teams before the June 23 draft, including the Milwaukee Bucks (10), Orlando Magic (11), Boston Celtics (3, 16, 23) and Chicago Bulls (14).
Ellenson has also worked out for several teams and appears to have solidified himself as a Top 10 selection. He had strong workouts for the Los Angeles Lakers (2), Phoenix (4, 13 and 28), Minnesota (5) and Toronto (9) and, besides Denver (7, 15, 19), is expected to work out for a few more teams, including Milwaukee (10).
Ellenson enjoyed an exceptional freshman season at Marquette, averaging a near double-double of 17 points and 9.7 rebounds while being accorded All-Big East Conference first-team honors.
photo courtesy of Maggie Bean, Marquette Athletics
About The Author
Gery Woelfel is an award-winning reporter and columnist. Gery has covered a wide-range of sports over his three decades as a professional journalist. During his career, his primary beat has been the NBA and has been a recipient of the Pro Basketball Writers Association of America award. Gery has conducted one-on-one interviews with numerous legendary sports figures like Michael Jordan, Larry Bird and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He has also been a regular contributor for HoopsHype.com and Lindy’s Pro Basketball Magazine and been on various sports talk shows around the country while serving as a pro basketball insider for WSSP (105.7 FM) in Milwaukee. Gery has covered every one of the NBA pre-draft camps, dating to the early ‘80s, along with numerous NFL combines.
