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Draft Rumors: 2015, Parker, Wiggins, Exum

November 15th, 2013 at 4:31pm CST by Chuck Myron

A pair of players widely considered to be among the five best draft picks for 2015 made their college choices today, with Jahlil Okafor headed to Duke and Cliff Alexander bound for Kansas. Longtime recruiting analyst Tom Konchalski told Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv that if Okafor picked Duke, it might influence top 2014 prospect Jabari Parker to stay an extra year in school so he can play with his AAU teammate. That would be quite a surprise, but there’s plenty of time left before Parker and other potential 2014 early entrants have to decide whether to declare for the draft, so a lot can happen. Here’s the latest on the 2014 class:

Tuesday’s talent showcase at the Champions Classic was quite a spectacle, but it didn’t help at least one GM draw any conclusions, according to USA Today’s Sam Amick. “To be honest, I think (Tuesday) night muddied the waters even more,” the unnamed GM said.
Another GM gave Amick his top five prospects: Andrew Wiggins, Parker, Dante Exum, Aaron Gordon and Julius Randle. That’s the same top five that a GM listed for Zagoria, though it’s unclear whether those are different GMs or the same one.
Gery Woelfel of the Racine Journal Times compares the 2014 draft class to the one that came 20 years before it, opining that Wiggins, Parker and Randle are analogous to Glenn Robinson, Jason Kidd and Grant Hill, the top three picks from 1994 (Twitter link).

Poll: Which Top 2014 Prospect Falls Before Next Year’s Draft?

August 10th, 2013 at 8:13pm CST by Spencer Lund

The 2014 NBA Draft is said to be the deepest in league history. Multiple prospects who would have gone as the top pick in previous drafts may now be relegated to a lower draft position. With such an influx of talent, Joel Brigham of HoopsWorld details some of the favorites in next summer's heralded class.

Brigham attempts to sift through the brightest prospects to provide a blueprint for how the order might play out a year from now. The players he spotlights include incoming college freshman, Andrew Wiggins (Kansas), Julius Randle (Kentucky), Jabari Parker (Duke), Aaron Gordon (Arizona), Oklahoma State sophomore Marcus Smart and Australian Dante Exum.

But even with these players as supposed locks for the lottery, things can change. As Brigham notes in his piece, last year's two prized players expected to be the top two picks in the 2013 Draft, Shabazz Muhammad and Cody Zeller, both fell after the following college basketball season concluded despite neither suffering a major injury. Muhammad even fell out of the top 10 all the way to the Timberwolves (by way of the Jazz) with the 14th pick.

It stands to reason that one of the players Brigham mentions will see his draft stock plummet before June even if all of them stay healthy. If all of these prospects stay healthy next season, and if Exum enters the draft without playing a year at an American university, which one will drop?

Draft Links: Oladipo, Wiggins, Noel, Gordon

April 2nd, 2013 at 11:53am CST by Luke Adams

UNLV's Anthony Bennett is the latest NCAA underclassmen to be added to our list of 2013 early entrants, and with a number of deadlines on the calendar for April, that list figures to continue growing exponentially in the coming weeks. Here are the latest updates and stories on the 2013 NBA draft:

Indiana's Victor Oladipo remains noncommittal on whether he'll enter this year's draft, as he tells Andy Katz of ESPN.com (Twitter link via Jeff Rabjohns of Peegs.com): "I haven’t even really thought about that yet." I'm guessing that when he eventually does think about it, Oladipo will decide to go pro.
Jeff Goodman of CBSSports.com agrees that Oladipo should and will go pro, and takes a look at another 30+ underclassmen, weighing whether or not they should stay in school.
NBA executives tell Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv (writing for SheridanHoops.com) that this year's draft would look entirely different if not for the NBA's age restrictions. Zagoria breaks down how the lottery might play out with no age limit, suggesting that Andrew Wiggins and three other prep players could be selected in the top five before Kentucky's Nerlens Noel. A pair of scouts also share their hypothetical mock lotteries, with Wiggins first and Noel second.
Aaron Gordon, one of the prep stars in Zagoria's top four, announced today that he'll attend Arizona, as Jeff Borzello of CBSSports.com details.
For underclassmen projected to be selected in the first round this year, returning to school is a high-risk, low-reward move, argues Alex Kennedy of HoopsWorld.
Aran Smith of HoopsHype.com has updated his 2013 mock draft.

Draft Rumors: Noel, Zeller, McLemore, Porter

April 1st, 2013 at 3:59pm CST by Chuck Myron

A pair of underclassmen declared their intentions to enter the NBA draft today, with N.C. State's C.J. Leslie and Kentucky's Archie Goodwin entering the mix. Here's more of what we're hearing with the draft now less than three months away:

The tournament bracket makes it clear which NCAA teams are winners, but Ben Standig of CSNWashington sorts through the March Madness winners and losers as it pertains to the draft.
Standig cites Kentucky center Nerlens Noel as a winner, and Sean Deveney of The Sporting News agrees, even though Noel has been out since February with a torn ACL (Twitter link). Other contenders to be the No. 1 overall pick, like Cody Zeller, Ben McLemore, Otto Porter and Marcus Smart all faltered, Deveney observes.
Joe Kotoch of SheridanHoops.com unveils the initial version of his mock draft, and has Noel going first overall, followed by Smart and McLemore.
A Western Conference GM tells Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv that six or seven members of the 2014 draft class would be in the mix for the No. 1 pick if they were eligible this year (Twitter link).
A GM who spoke to Dave Telep of ESPN.com echoed that sentiment, citing five potential All-Stars who could be in next year's draft: Andrew Wiggins, Jabari Parker, Aaron Gordon, Julius Randle and Andrew Harrison (Twitter link).