Jabari Parker has emerged as the overriding favorite to be the top pick of the Cleveland Cavaliers in this week’s NBA draft.
With Joel Embiid sidelined for at least several months following foot surgery and Andrew Wiggins still thought to need more polish, the versatile, sharp-shooting Duke forward often compared to Carmelo Anthony is now rated as the clear-cut favorite to join fellow Blue Devils’ alum Kyrie Irving and new Cavs’ coach David Blatt in Cleveland as the top overall selection.
“With Joel Embiid’s foot surgery, and the reported 4-6 month recovery that comes with it, the Cavs are said to be leaning toward Parker with the No. 1 pick,” CBSNews.com reports. “Parker is more NBA-ready than Wiggins, who would go to the Bucks at No. 2.”
In his only season at Duke, Parker averaged 19 points and nine rebounds while being tabbed a first-team All-American and winning the Wayman Tisdale Award as the nation’s top freshman player. In an early-season, head-to-head match against the Kansas tandem of Embiid and Wiggins, Parker tallied 27 points, nine rebounds, two steals, and a block, en route to becoming the Blue Devils’ and longtime coach Mike Krzyzewski’s all-time top freshman scorer.
“Jabari could not have been better,” Krzyzewski told reporters soon after Parker declared for the draft. “He is the epitome of what you would want a basketball player to be, outstanding every day on the practice court and in the classroom and a very humble young man.”
If a recent ESPN poll is to be believed, most NBA front office execs seem to agree with Krzyzewski’s assessment, as the 19-year-old Parker was voted the top available talent in this year’s loaded draft by a pool of 30 surveyors. In all, Parker garnered 17 votes, more than double Embiid’s eight and Wiggins’ five.
The son of former NBA veteran swingman Sonny Parker, Parker would join a young and building Cavs’ core that in addition to Irving also includes Dion Waiters, Tristan Thompson, and Anthony Bennett.
