NEW YORK: An injury to potential top selection Joel Embiid of Cameroon is just one of many question marks facing NBA teams as they try to find future stars in today’s draft.
A talent-laden 2014 draft class includes a number of promising international players, with 18-year-old Australian guard Dante Exum perhaps the most intriguing.
Unlike Embiid, who played one year at the University of Kansas before declaring for the draft, Exum hasn’t played at a US college, lessening the chance that the athletic and intelligent 6-foot, 6-inch (1.98 m) youngster will be taken with the first overall pick by the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Embiid, who broke the Jayhawks’ freshman record with 72 blocked shots and was the Big 12 conference’s Defensive Player of the Year for Kansas, had been widely tipped as a likely top pick before he needed surgery last week that used two screws to stabilize a stress fracture in his right foot.
He had already missed the national college championship (NCAA) tournament because of a stress fracture in his lower back and despite his youth the injuries are making teams think twice about him.
Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry -- whose team has the second overall selection ahead of the Philadelphia 76ers, Orlando Magic and Utah Jazz -- said Monday it would be “hard” to take Embiid.
“He’s a phenomenal individual,” Lasry said.
“But with the injury, and how severe and how long it will take him to recover, I think for us today we’re going to want someone who is going to help us on Day One.”
With Embiid’s stock lowered, his Kansas teammate Andrew Wiggins of Canada and Jabari Parker, a polished scorer out of Duke University, figure to head the field.
Whoever the Cavaliers select will be under the tutelage of new coach David Blatt, a European coaching icon who guided Maccabi Tel Aviv to an upset of Real Madrid in the Euroleague championship.AFP
