2014 NBA Draft: NBA Executives Rate Jabari Parker As Likely No. 1 Pick

Dan Duangdao
2 Min Read
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With the 2014 NBA Draft less than two months away, all the talk for the Los Angeles Lakers will be about which pick they will end up with in the NBA Draft Lottery and who will be available. While the Lakers finished with the sixth worst record in the NBA, they have a 6.3 percent chance of getting the first overall pick.

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With Kentucky’s Julius Randle officially declaring for the draft on Tuesday, he joins one of the most anticipated drafts in recent years that will also feature Jabari Parker, Andrew Wiggins, Joel Embiid, and Dante Exum. While the top-five teams will get a potential All-Star, much of the discussion has been able who the number one overall pick will be.

In a recent poll by ESPN, they asked 30 NBA executives who they would pick with the number one pick and Duke’s Jabari Parker came away with 17 votes:

Jabari Parker: 17 votes

Joel Embiid: 8 votes

Andrew Wiggins: 5 votes

Over the past couple of months, all three players have been in the conversation and the debate will surely continue leading up to the draft in June. While Parker is considered the most NBA-ready, Wiggins and Embiid potentially have the higher ceilings.

Since the Lakers have the sixth worst record, they will hope to land a top-three pick on May 20 as they are unable to get the fourth or fifth pick in the draft. With the Lakers looking to be competitive next season, GM Mitch Kupchak recently acknowledged that trading the lottery pick was a possibility.
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Dan Duangdao was the managing editor at Lakers Nation (2013-16, 2018-20). He is currently the founder at LA Sports Media, Lake Show, Raiders Nation, Rams Nation, Kings Nation, Galaxy Nation, and MMA Rumors. Born and raised in Southern California and a lifelong Los Angeles sports and mixed martial arts fan, his first NBA game was Kobe Bryant and the Lakers against the Golden State Warriors with Michael Jordan in attendance during the 1998-99 NBA season. He was previously a contributor at HOOPSWORLD (now Basketball Insiders) and an NBA editor at ClutchPoints. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram: @DanDuangdao.
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