UPDATE (6/19 12:10 PM): Embiid has suffered a stress fracture in his right foot and will have surgery according to Yahoo! Sports Adrian Wojnarowski:
Joel Embiid has suffered stress fracture in right foot and slated for surgery on Friday, agent Arn Tellem says.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) June 19, 2014
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
The NBA Draft is one week away and just when things were starting to get sorted out, everything was thrown off by one foot.
— Think You Know Everything About The 2000’s Lakers? Take The Ultimate Fan Quiz! —
ESPN’s Jeff Goodman reports that Kansas center Joel Embiid has injured his foot in a workout:
Joel Embiid has suffered a foot injury, sources told ESPN. Extent still unknown: http://t.co/K6lP8x86MT
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanESPN) June 19, 2014
Embiid was already coming off a back injury that ended his only season at Kansas, so another injury in workouts basically ends any possibility of him going first overall. Now the question is how far will Embiid fall?
No one is quite sure and with Greg Oden fresh in everyone’s minds, many teams are likely to be extremely wary of taking the big man despite his immense potential. But Embiid’s agent Arn Tellum is already working on getting his client to a big-time franchise according to ESPN’s Bill Simmons:
Also hearing that Arn Tellem wanted Embiid to go first… but if that can't happen, he's going to push hard to steer him to Boston or LA.
— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) June 19, 2014
The possibility of Embiid being available at seven is something no Lakers executive believed would happen, but now it must be evaluated. Julius Randle just had an excellent workout for the team and the Lakers loved what Marcus Smart showed them a couple of weeks ago, even inviting him in for a second workout tomorrow.
— Lakers Nation Store Is Back! Check Out The Latest Gear! —
But Embiid dropping means those players could move up. It could be difficult to pass up someone as talented as Embiid if he falls in the Lakers’ lap. Everything is a possibility right now.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Lakers Most Likely Draft Candidates