THE NBA / MARK HEISLER : Bradley’s Stature Grows in the Eyes of Draftniks

In a salute to the NCAA tournament, here’s our annual look at the top dozen college players from a pro perspective.

Four NBA personnel men were polled, and they came up with the following:

1. Shawn Bradley, C, 7 feet 7, Brigham Young freshman.

You wouldn’t expect a religious young man from rural Utah to head for the glitz so soon, but he dropped the bomb Friday, declaring himself available for the draft from Australia, where he is winding up his two-year mission.

Bradley has put on 30 pounds and grown an inch since completing his freshman season in 1991, and he was already regarded as a unique prospect. He’s still something of a project but one with incredible potential.

University of Utah Coach Rick Majerus said: “The biggest mistake since not drafting (Michael) Jordan No. 1 would be passing on Bradley.” An NBA general manager said: “Almost everybody you’re hearing about is going to come. There’s the possibility of a rookie cap in two years. Two years ago, you were only talking $2 million a year for a top pick. When Shaquille (O’Neal) got $5 million, it kind of opened up everyone’s eyes.”

2. Glen Robinson, F, 6-9, Purdue sophomore.

No one ever sat out a Prop. 48 year and showed it less. Do-it-all type, inside and out. So far, he says he’s staying.

3. Jamal Mashburn, F, 6-8, Kentucky junior.

Has already declared. A moose who can shoot it from downtown and handle the ball, too. Some project him as better than Larry Johnson.

4. Anfernee Hardaway, G, 6-7, Memphis State junior.

Has already declared. A big point guard and a big-time talent. Larry Bird and Sacramento General Manager Jerry Reynolds have said he could be No. 1. Had some spotty performances late but played on a woeful team and may have toned down his own game to get teammates going.

5. Grant Hill, G/F, 6-8, Duke junior.

He’s not coming out, but will go No. 1 or 2 in 1994. Some question his shooting, but he has also been compared to Jordan and Julius Erving. Two teams have him No. 1 right now, including Charlotte, which sees him more than anyone.

6. Chris Webber, C/F, 6-9, Michigan sophomore.

Has remained noncommittal on reports he will declare. The great riddle: A year ago, he would have been ranked No. 2 in this group only to Bradley. After playing against him in Dream Team scrimmages at La Jolla, Magic Johnson said he would redefine power forward in the ‘90s as Karl Malone did in the ‘80s. Now scouts uniformly cite Webber’s lack of progress. Though dominating, he’s still raw, and scouts wonder if he’s headstrong and/or lazy. On the other hand, even before soft-spoken Steve Fisher, Michigan was known for pampering prize recruits and imparting minimal coaching. On top of that, Webber and his classmates took over the program from Day 1 and suffered from the lack of older teammates they could look up to, who could act as role models. Our hunch is he will be great.

7. Calbert Cheaney, F, 6-7, Indiana senior.

Made a big jump this season.

8. Rodney Rogers, F, 6-7, Wake Forest junior.

Noncommittal on reports he will declare. He will probably really measure out at 6-5 but has a Mailman-type 250-pound body. Can shoot from outside and handle the ball a little but is raw compared to Cheaney, the finished product. Said a scout of Rogers: “You’re drafting his body rather than his game.”

9. J.R. Rider, G/F, 6-5, Nevada Las Vegas senior.

“Jumps out of the building,” a scout said. “Awesome offensive talent. Remember Derek Smith with the Clippers? He’ll be the same kind of thing, a monster of a man (Rider weighs 220) playing against smaller people.”

10. Jason Kidd, G, 6-4, California freshman. The pros aren’t bearing down on him because they don’t think he will leave, but they love him. Needs to work on his outside shot, but some say he’s the best freshman point guard since Magic.

11. Bobby Hurley, G, 6-0, Duke senior.

Before La Jolla, he was considered marginal, but scouts are now confident he will make the jump. Tough, fast enough and, most important, a fine shooter.

12. Eric Montross, C, 7-0, North Carolina junior.

There is talk he will leave, but here’s someone whose draft position will improve dramatically with one more year in school. Unspectacular but strong and works hard.

On the bubble: Allan Houston, Tennessee; Terry Dehere, Seton Hall, and Lucious Harris, Cal State Long Beach, all seniors.

THE LIFE OF RILEY

HEATS UP AGAIN

Veterans of Pat Riley’s last few Laker campaigns, see if this sounds familiar.

Since participating in the most expensive fight in NBA history, losing both their point guards and starting 0-2 on their West Coast trip, the New York Knicks have won five games in a row and eased ahead of the Chicago Bulls again for best record in the East.

The winning streak started at the Forum, where Riley arrived 37 minutes late, or eight minutes before the media was required to be out of his dressing room. Players dressed at the hotel, while assistant Jeff Van Gundy diagramed Laker plays in advance so the Knicks would be ready to go as soon as they sat down.

Said Riley upon arrival: “We’re not allowed to be late?”

Said Riley after the Knick victory, grinning: “First, I’d like to say that on our way over here, the bus driver made a wrong turn. Me not knowing the area very well, (we) couldn’t get here on time. I hope you understand.”

Riley also closed the locker room after the fight in Phoenix, another violation of NBA rules for which he also wasn’t fined.

Several days later, an unnamed Knick said Riley had wanted to banish Greg Anthony from the remainder of the trip but was talked out of it by veterans Patrick Ewing, Doc Rivers, Charles Oakley and Rolando Blackman.

One look at that in his morning paper and Riley went ballistic, apparently unmoved by the suggestions of team unity inherent in it.

“We have a hard, fast rule,” he said. “It upsets me when there’s an unidentified source. If you don’t have the guts to put your name behind something, then don’t say anything. We call it the Rule of the Gutless. You’ve got something to say, say it.”

Asked about that, all Knick players said, “No comment,” almost in unison.

THE LIFE OF PFUND

HAS BEEN MORE PFUN

Nothing was more predictable than the Lakers struggling and Randy Pfund getting blamed for it.

If Pfund is a young coach with things to learn, if he’s a nice guy who may be too nice a guy sometimes, if he could have played the kids more, if he could have demanded better defense, one fact remains:

This isn’t his fault!

Give or take a couple of victories, this is what this team is. It was a little-better-than-.500 club that did a gutsy thing: It traded a real player, Sam Perkins, for a real prospect, Doug Christie, even if it had to do it in the middle of the season and take Benoit Benjamin, too.

If the Lakers expected to skip blithely along, they were optimistic. If anyone thinks tearing down a mediocre team and rebuilding it from the ground up is going to be easy or fun or quick, or that this is the worst of it, wake up and smell the coffee.

FACES AND FIGURES

Now that we’ve covered all possibilities: They said Phoenix couldn’t win a title--OK, we said it too--but we’d better reconsider after the Suns went into Chicago and won a nationally televised game the Bulls needed, with Charles Barkley wearing a no-nonsense look no one had ever seen before. “Hey, we’re playing the same schedule as everyone else,” Barkley said. “It’s like everyone else is playing NBA teams and we’re playing the Little Sisters of the Poor. We’ve beaten the other teams more than everyone else, but people want to say, ‘They’re too small, they don’t play good defense, they’re not tough enough.’ They want to say this and that, but you’ve got to give teams credit for what they’ve done. We’re not a fluke.”

Get serious: A Houston Chronicle straw poll of 20 NBA reporters with most valuable player votes showed Hakeem Olajuwon getting 66 points, Barkley 65, Jordan 34, Ewing 7. Three voters didn’t even include Barkley in the top three. . . . Bull Coach Phil Jackson said he doesn’t want to finish behind the Knicks in the East. Jordan said it’s no big deal. Who’s right? Put it this way: It has been 15 seasons since a team that didn’t have the best record in its conference won a title. That was the ’78 Washington Bullets, who finished 44-38, eight games behind the first-place San Antonio Spurs in the Central Division, 11 behind the 76ers in the East.

The Cleveland Cavaliers’ swoon coincides neatly with Mark Price’s return from a thumb injury that still bothers him. In eight games, he has shot 38%, including an 0 for 11 at Detroit, where Isiah Thomas outscored him, 31-2, and Coach Lenny Wilkens didn’t start him in the second half. . . . The Boston Celtics’ Kevin McHale, on his declining playing time: “The only thing that bothers me is picking up my check. I go to the mailbox blindfolded, masked, incognito, on my knees. People say, ‘Who’s that 4-foot-3 guy picking up a check?’ ”