With the majority of the big-name players in college basketball already knocked out of the 2014 NCAA Tournament, the attention has turned to the upcoming 2014 NBA Draft and which players will declare themselves eligible to be drafted.
One player that has gotten a lot of attention over the course of the season has been center Joel Embiid of Kansas. All the attention was originally centered around Kansas’ Andrew Wiggins as a potential high draft pick, but Embiid emerged as a legitimate star in the making and quite possibly the number one overall pick in the upcoming draft.
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According to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports, Embiid will enter the 2014 NBA Draft:
Kansas star Joel Embiid – a possible No. 1 overall choice – has decided to enter the June NBA draft, sources told Yahoo Sports.
Embiid could be the first of many top tier college players to declare in the coming weeks. Wiggins may also follow his teammate’s lead and also declare while there’s still no word on other top draft prospects like Jabari Parker (Duke), Marcus Smart (Oklahoma State) and Julius Randle (Kentucky).
Parker may have become the most unlikely to declare for the draft of the names mentioned above. Parker was clearly frustrated after Duke was upset by Mercer early in the 2014 NCAA Tournament and appeared to have more desire to return than to declare.
As for the rest of the top prospects, most believe the majority will be one-and-done and will enter the draft along with Australia’s Dante Exum. Of the promising young players mentioned, Exum has been linked to the Lakers the most thus far with the Australian phenom seen at many Lakers games this season and recently signing with Kobe Bryant’s agent, Rob Pelinka.
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