Kansas’ Bill Self: Cavaliers should draft Andrew Wiggins or Joel Embiid
By Jack Crosby
With just three days until the 2014 NBA Draft, the anticipation continues to grow as we await who the Cleveland Cavaliers will draft with their third no. 1 overall pick in the last four years. Two choices they have been pondering for quite some time are Kansas stars Joel Embiid and Andrew Wiggins, although not so much Embiid anymore following recent foot surgery.
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Still, despite that injury, their college head coach, Bill Self, believes that either one of them should be the top overall pick come Thursday night because either one can change the franchise’s fortunes.
“Pick one of them,” Self told USA TODAY. “Either way, they’re getting a franchise-changing player. And they’re about as different as you can get. One is low-key. The other is real emotional.”
To hammer home the point, Self stated that both are deserving of receiving the dubious honor of being selected first, apparently even Embiid still, with the injury issues.
“I think both Andrew and Joel are deserving,” Self says of his two former players. “The bottom line is they’re starting with a clean slate and they’ll have to produce wherever they go. They know that.”
It’s nice, and also obvious, that Self would go out of his way to talk up his two former stars, but there’s about as slim a chance as there has ever been for Embiid to land in that spot. Wiggins, however, still has a chance as the decision is said to be down now to the Canada native and Duke’s Jabari Parker.