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It’s hard to remember a time when UCLA guards didn’t play great defense. Coach Ben Howland takes some criticism for his snail-slow offense, but his players, for the most part, reach the NBA with solid defensive fundamentals already in their back pocket.

Luc Mbah a Moute, Arron Afflalo, Russell Westbrook, Darren Collison and Jrue Holiday are, perhaps, the best examples. The five players had varying degrees of offensive skills when they were drafted, but each was able to lockdown on an opponent in the halfcourt set.

Bruins guard Malcolm Lee is keeping that tradition alive this year. Like the UCLA players before him, he can defend multiple positions (point guard and shooting guard), but it’s anyone’s guess what he’ll be able to do offensively in the NBA.

“My strength is, of course, my defensive skills but I think a lot of people don’t know I can create—not only for myself, but for my teammates,” he said at Thursday’s workout at the Nets team facility. “I think I did a pretty good job of doing that today.

“You just got to basically stay in front of your man and the basket,” he said of his defensive strategy on Thursday. “When you’re playing 2-on-2 or 3-on-3 or 1-on-1, basically there’s little to no help, so you’ve got to be able to show you can play on-ball defense and I think I did a pretty good job of that today.”

The workout included power forwards like Jamie Skeen of VCU, Jon Leuer of Wisconsin, Willie Reed of St. Louis and Vernon Macklin of Florida, but Pepperdine’s Mychel Thompson was the only other guard present in New Jersey on Thursday.

That means Lee had a good opportunity to show he has the leadership skills required to play the point.

“It was good,” he said. “A lot of competitive stuff. We shot a lot. It was good.

“It was a real good pace, especially for the guards because there was only two guards in the workout so we really had no breaks but I felt that me and Mikey really pushed each other.”

“He’s quick, man,” Thompson said of Lee. “I think we both got a little tired out there because we’re the only guards, but he’s really quick and crafty so he’s definitely tough to guard.”

Nets GM Billy King described him as a “combo” guard, and the Riverside, CA native frequently played off the ball during his three seasons at UCLA, but the 6-5 Lee is eager to prove he can handle point guard duties in the NBA.

“I see myself more as a point—just my natural leader skills,” he said. “I can defend the point and I think I can run the team.

“I’m just trying to show I can lead,” he continued. “Usually the guard is the leader of the team, so I was just trying to show them I could take control of the bigs and basically control floor and just control, surveying the floor and stuff and telling them where to go.”

Lee averaged only 2.0 APG last season (and averaged 1.7 turnovers per game), but NBA teams might be able to overlook that because he wasn’t a full-time point guard. Holiday was forced to play off the ball at UCLA, and he’s been able to answer a lot of questions about his offensive ability in only two short seasons with the 76ers.

The bigger issue for Lee is his perimeter shot. Moving to NBA range is hard enough, but he never even really grasped the collegiate 3-point distance.

“I’ve been working on that, along with the on-ball picks down in Vegas with my trainers Joe (Abunassar) and Drew (Moore),” Lee said. “I feel like I’ve made a lot of improvement on my jumper, especially extending my range out to the NBA three. I feel like the hard work has been paying off in these drills.”

Lee has already worked out for the Pistons, Timberwolves, Knicks and HEAT, and the workouts aren’t about to stop. He admits he doesn’t know too much about the Nets because their games aren’t usually on in California. For Lee, the bigger issue isn’t what teams are looking at him. Rather, he’s more concerned with what they’re looking at. As long as he’s playing well, he’s confident he’ll land in the right situation.

“It’s a whole mix right now,” he said. “I’m hearing some late first [round], some early second. I really don’t try to pay attention to that. I just try to get in these workouts and play to the best of my ability. I feel like everything else is in God’s hand. Whatever happens, happens.”

{AUTHOR_BOX}Does the NBA Have Room for Another Thompson?

Everybody knows Mychal Thompson, the Bahamian big man out of the University of Minnesota who was drafted first overall by the Trail Blazers in 1978 and went on to play 14 stellar NBA seasons, his middle son Klay, a lottery hopeful in this year’s draft after three impressive seasons with Washington State, and youngest son, Trayce, who was a second-round pick by the White Sox in the 2009 MLB Draft.

Heck, even casual sports fans know about the athletic endeavors of the three Thompson men.

Of course, Mychal had an oldest son as well, and despite playing four impressive seasons with the Pepperdine basketball team, Mychel (notice the difference in spelling, please) is still trying to make a name for himself.

The thing of it is, the more people see Mychel play, the more he reminds them of younger brother Klay.

“Yeah he’s similar,” said Bruins guard Malcolm Lee after Thursday’s workout at the Nets facility. Lee primarily defended Thompson throughout the drills, and guarded his brother, Klay, during the Pac-10 season.

“Actually, their game is almost basically the same,” Lee continued. “It’s just like the exact same. Klay might be a little taller, but their games are real similar.”

“We played together since we were little,” Mychel said. “Our dad taught us the game so we had a lot of the same stuff, and we’re brothers.”

They certainly do look similar on the floor, but the brothers aren’t quite identical. Klay hit just under 40% of his 3-pointers for the Cougars last season while Mychel’s percentage dropped from 32.7% as a juniorto 30.1%. However, due to his height (6-7) and reach, there are some who thing Mychel will be able to defend NBA guards, perhaps even better than his brother.

It’s not totally clear whether or not Mychel will be drafted, but he has been getting a few nibbles.

“It’s gone pretty good,” he said of the pre-draft process. “A lot of traveling. I’ve been West Coast, East Coast, Midwest, so it’s a great process and a good experience.

“Pretty good feedback,” he continued. “Some teams are looking at me in the second round. They just like what I can do and like what I can bring to the table, whether it’s shooting or my basketball IQ, doing what I can to help the team.”

Of course, executives always like to check in on Mychel’s dad (“They’ll be like, ‘Tell your dad hi,’” Thompson said), but the former Pepperdine star isn’t complaining. Everyone wants to talk about his dad and brother, so Mychel doesn’t disappoint. After all, he’s stayed in constant contact with his family throughout the last few weeks to pick up any piece of advice that can help him get drafted.

“It’s cool because, he’s up on a little bit higher pedestal than I am, but I think he’s in New York right now, so he’s close, but I talk to him every day,” Mychel said of Klay. “He’s definitely enjoying it. We talk about our matchups and who we’re going against—all that type of stuff. We work out together in L.A. so I’m always going against good competition when I’m playing against him.

While Klay can give a pointer about an opposing guard like Lee, Mychal can tell Mychel want coaches want to see out of a potential draft pick.

“No matter what, compete,” Mychel said when asked to share his dad’s advice. “Even if you’re not shooting well, you can still work hard and impress the teams with your work ethic and how hard you play.”

Mychel never hit 40% of his field goals for an entire season in college and his 3-point percentage peaked in his freshman year, but he is polished in other areas and may remind teams of last season’s second-round find—Landry Fields. Both are 6-7, both can defend, and they’re both polished, four-year college players.

“Mychel, he’s good,” Lee concluded. “Everybody knows about Klay, but Mychal is also good. He can dribble, he can shoot. It wasn’t no easy matchup today.”

Barnes to Play Point Guard?

North Carolina forward Harrison Barnes—who was a likely top-five pick in this June’s draft before deciding to return to Chapel Hill for his sophomore season—is broadening his horizons this summer. Even though he stands 6-8 and projects to play small forward in the NBA, Barnes decided to give his game a makeover and attend Chris Paul’s CP3 Elite Guard Camp in Winston-Salem, NC on June 10, according to Mike DeCourcy of The Sporting News.

One of only 17 college players invited to the Nike-sponsored camp, Barnes will likely be the only one who isn’t actually a point guard. He has attended the camp in the past, but this year he is specifically focusing on his ballhandling and passing after committing 72 turnovers as a freshman.

So no, Barnes isn’t going to play point guard next season. He’s just being proactive about expanding his game.

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