Re-Drafting the 2014 NBA Draft

Dante Exum. 8. player. 67. <p><strong>Original pick: Nik Stauskas</strong></p> <p>I’m ready to admit that this might be too low for Dante Exum. At the same time, we have no way of knowing.</p> <p>While Exum’s mythical status isn’t quite on the same level of Joel Embiid, the Australian point guard hasn’t exactly proven himself on the NBA level. Exum missed the entirety of his sophomore campaign in 2015-2016 with injury, and that makes this murky. As a rookie, the 6-foot-6 combo guard did play in all 82 games, making 41 starts, but the results were not stellar for Exum.</p> <p>In those 82 games, Exum struggled to a 5.7 PER that was sunk by a horrific 45.7% true shooting percentage. He was a semi-reasonable three-point shooter (31.4%) for a rookie, but Exum’s 34.9% field goal percentage qualifies as ghastly, and he failed to average even twice as many assists (3.9) as he did turnovers (2.3) on a per-game basis.</p> <p>Defense is where Exum will likely make his greatest impact, as he is a tremendous athlete with elite size to defend the point guard position. There were flashes of that potential dominance as a rookie and, frankly, that is what allows Exum to remain this high. Still, they are just flashes at this point, and sustained defensive success is not always easy to achieve.</p> <p>Prior to the draft, we knew more about Joel Embiid than Dante Exum, and now, that has flipped. Unfortunately, what we know about Exum isn’t all positive and that allows for this placement.</p>. PG/SG. Australia