If you managed to place a bet on Andrew Wiggins being the number one pick in the 2014 NBA Draft, congratulations. The Cleveland Cavaliers decided that Wiggins was a string enough choice to bring in and the small forward who was in Kansas last season can look forward to playing under the new Cavalier coach David Blatt.
Wiggins was a hot tip from many experts in US basketball and he has already featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated. When an emerging talent is compared to Wilt Chamberlain and is touted as being the hottest prospect heading to the NBA since LeBron James, people are going to sit up and take notice.
In his freshman year in Kansas, Wiggins performed superbly well in defence although his offensive play managed to be erratic. Of course, for most players at this stage of their career, averaging sex rebounds and 17 points a game would be considered a strong haul but when people are expecting you to tear up the court like LeBron James, there is an inevitability of the disappointment that some people will hold.
The thing is, now that he is first pick, Wiggins will have to put up with increased expectations on him this season but as he told the media at the NBA Draft, “I’ve got to believe in myself before anyone else can.”
Canada goes back to back in the NBA Draft
This is the first time that Canada has achieved back to back first picks in the NBA Draft although Wiggins will be hoping to have a better first season than Anthony Bennett managed last year. Wiggins will be joining Bennett so he can hopefully hear about the pressure that being first pick puts you under. He will also be joining up with another Canadian in Cleveland as the Cavaliers also have Tristian Thompson, who hails from Ontario, in his team. The Cavaliers have turned to Canada on a number of occasions in recent years.
The second pick was Jabari Parker who is heading to Milwaukee Bucks and Joel Embiid, many people’s first choice until injury raised some concerns over his ability to play this season, was third pick. Embiid will be heading to the Philadelphia 76ers. The fourth pick of the Draft fell to Orlando Magic and they snapped up Aaron Gordon.
There will be many players, coaches, owners and fans delighted that they hype and buzz around the NBA Draft is over for another year. However, this is when the hard work begins in the training sessions and it won’t be long until the new NBA season gets underway.
If you have looked through the draft picks and think that a team has given themselves a great short of glory, you may want to check out the NBA Futures Betting Guide on our site. At this stage, with free agents still being undeclared, you are likely to get more attractive odds for some teams. The Cavaliers haven’t given up hope of enticing LeBron James to play for them in the new season and you may think that he has the ability to take the team from being a zero to being a hero in one campaign. Of course, there are plenty of teams on the trail of James and you may think it is worth placing a bet on his future and where he will be playing basketball in the 2014/15 NBA season.
For the moment though, Andrew Wiggins will be basking in the glory of being first pick in the 2014 NBA Draft but he knows he has a lot of hard work stretching out in front of him.
At 3-1 down in the NBA Finals, many people predicted that the Cleveland Cavaliers would lie down, perhaps looking for the pain to be over and done with for another year. After all, they were facing the record breakers, the team that had shown themselves to be the best of the best by a good...