Basketball Insiders’ mock draft: Andrew Wiggins goes No. 1 overall
Before the college basketball season began, it looked like Kansas Jayhawks’ forward Andrew Wiggins would be the number one overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft.
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However, it soon seemed like Duke Blue Devils’ Jabari Parker took the top spot away from Wiggins and as the season progressed, Wiggins’ teammate, Joel Embiid, looked like he would be the number one pick. Now that Embiid will need foot surgery for a stress fracture in his right foot, it looks like Wiggins may wind up being the top selection.
Alex Kennedy, Joel Brigham, Steve Kyler and Yannis Koutroupis of Basketball Insiders put together their latest consensus mock draft and all four writers project the Cleveland Cavaliers to select Wiggins with the first-overall selection.
Wiggins averaged 17.1 points, 5.9 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 1.2 steals and 1.0 blocks per game for the Jayhawks last season while shooting 44.8% from the field, 34.1% from beyond the arc and 77.5% from the free throw line. Wiggins is ranked as the top prospect in the draft by Jonathan Givony of Draft Express and is projected to go number one overall.
With the exception of Kyler, each writer predicts the Milwaukee Bucks to take former Duke Blue Devils’ forward Jabari Parker with the second-overall pick. Kyler believes the Bucks will go with Australian point guard Dante Exum. Kyle then has the Philadelphia 76ers taking Exum with the third-overall pick while the other three have Parker going third.
Things get trick for the Orlando Magic at four. Kennedy projects them to bit the bullet and go with Embiid while Brigham predicts the Magic to take former Oklahoma State Cowboys’ point guard Marcus Smart and both Kyler and Koutroupis have former Indiana Hoosiers’ big man Noah Vonleh to go fourth-overall.
Brigham and Koutroupis have Embiid going fifth-overall to the Utah Jazz while Kyler has him going sixth-overall to the Boston Celtics.