The NBA draft lottery is coming on Tuesday night and the winner will be announced and after that mock drafts for 2014 have names like Andrew Wiggins, Joel Embiid, Julius Randle, Jabari Parker and Marcus Smart as some of the top picks as teams like the Orlando Magic, Philadelphia Sixers, Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, Utah Jazz and Milwaukee Bucks try to win the top pick in the lottery, which is on the schedule and will be live on ESPN before the Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers play Game 2.
The lottery this year will be extremely interesting, as big franchises are in the mix to get the top pick and this season there is a deep class of players to pick from, which was not the case last year. Wiggins and Parker are considered locks for at least the top three picks, while Randle, Marcus Smart, Dante Exum and Joel Embiid are predicted as top 10 picks in the lottery. The Bucks come into the lottery with the best chance to get the win at 25 percent and they are followed by the Philadelphia 76ers and Orlando Magic. The Utah Jazz are in over the Boston Celtics, while the Los Angeles Lakers are next and they are ahead of the Sacramento Kings and the Detroit Pistons as well as the Cleveland Cavaliers, New Orleans Pelicans, Denver Nuggets and Orlando Magic, while the Timberwolves and the Suns are the last two in.
Wiggins and Parker were talked about since last season as players that could be in the mix for the number one overall pick and Embiid also is now in that conversation. Wiggins played on season at Kansas with Embiid, while Parker led the Duke Blue Devils in scoring and rebounding in his first season at Duke. All three players did very well in the tournament, while Julius Randle went all the way to the championship game with the Kentucky Wildcats and now all those players have declared for the draft. Aaron Gordon and Kyle Anderson are also highly touted prospects along with senior Doug McDermott and all those players could be lottery picks.
Exum and Smart are getting good grades coming out of the combine and into the lottery and now Wiggins and Parker will get dissected as teams look at whether to draft them at number one overall. Last season Anthony Bennett was selected number one overall and he had a terrible season with the Cavaliers and if Wiggins is selected it would make for two straight number one overall picks from Canada. Bennett did not go to the combine last year and this year Wiggins and Parker skipped it and those players will be the ones looked at the most heading into the June event.
