Wally Ellenson Selected In 2016 NBDL Draft

On Sunday, the Los Angeles D-Fenders selected Marquette’s Wally Ellenson with the 10th pick in the third round of the 2016 NBA Development League Draft.

No, really.

Check it out, he’s on their training camp roster with Vander Blue and everything.

Look, I’m not trying to be mean to Wally here. God bless him for getting picked and getting a chance to make the roster. But let’s face facts: He averaged 1.9 points and 2.2 rebounds in a shade under nine minutes per game as a redshirt junior for MU last season while appearing in 29 of Marquette’s 33 games. I have literally zero idea how the D-Fenders - or the Los Angeles Lakers, depending on who’s actually making the decisions for the D-League team - can justify spending a draft pick on him.

The guy taken right after him, with the 55th overall pick, is Marqueze Coleman from Nevada. He was the Wolf Pack’s leading scorer last year at 15.1 points per game. He also chipped in 4.3 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game. Names I recognized that came after Ellenson in the draft: Jerome Seagears, Lasan Kromah, Ricky Tarrant, Ron Mvouika, Ladarius Tabb, and Ralph Sampson III. Ok, the last one was cheating a little bit.

I guess taking Ellenson at #54 overall isn’t as weird as Texas selecting Georgetown’s David Allen with the third pick of the sixth round, 46 picks after Ellenson. If you’re like me, you just said, “Who the hell is David Allen?” He appears to be a former walk-on for the Hoyas who last appeared for them in the 2014-15 season, when he played 20 minutes in 10 games.

The D-League is weird, man.

UPDATE (Friday, November 4, 2016): They cut him.