Much of the hype entering the 2013-14 college basketball season — and Tuesday’s Champions Classic in Chicago, in particular — is about who will go No. 1 overall next June.
Andrew Wiggins or Julius Randle?
Julius Randle or Andrew Wiggins?
That is an open question at this point, one NBA executive told SNY.tv on the eve of the big event in Chicago.
“Yes,” he said, adding that the 6-foot-8 Wiggins must “prove that he can sustain being in attack mode over the course of an entire game and season.”
But an even better question than Wiggins vs. Randle, the NBA exec says, is who will mess up the 2014 NBA Draft trying to prove he’s the smartest guy in the room?
“The interesting story ISN’T who goes No. 1,” the executive said. “It’s who takes Darko Milicic …because somebody will.”
Milicic, as you may recall, went No. 2 in the 2003 Draft behind LeBron James but ahead of Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.
To borrow a line from “Spinal Tap,” he’s currently residing in the “Where are they now?” category, having last played in the NBA in 2012.
Other Milicic-type examples include the questionable choices of Terrence Ross over Andre Drummond in 2012, Hasheem Thabeet over James Harden in 2009 and Joe Alexander and D.J. Augustin over Brook Lopez in 2008.
“Somebody will draft for need or try to prove they’re smarter than everyone else somewhere in the Top 5-10 and screw it up,” the executive said.
Among the almost 80 NBA personnel expected to be on hand Tuesday night in Chicago when five of the Top 10 projected picks will be on display are Danny Ainge of Boston, Chris Grant of Cleveland, John Hammond of Milwaukee, Sam Hinkie of Philadelphia, Mitch Kupchak of the Lakers, Steve Mills and Allan Houston of the Knicks (who don’t have a first-round pick in 2014), Daryl Morey of Houston, Neil Olshey of Portland, Sam Presti of Oklahoma City, Fiip Saunders of Minnesota and Masai Ujiri of Toronto.
One of these guys could end up drafting the Darko Milicic of 2014.
Asked who that player might turn out to be, the executive cracked SNY.tv, “I don’t know, but it won’t be me who drafts him.”
