The hype surrounding the 2014 NBA Draft class has died significantly from its pre-season peak, however NBA teams were assured of the addition of another top end talent when Australian Dante Exum declared on Wednesday his intention to bypass the US college system and head straight to pros mid-year.
Exum is expected to slip somewhere between this year’s Jabari Parker, Andrew Wiggins-led list of incoming stars and is not expected to fall further than the seventh overall selection.
But unlike this year’s crop of expected Draftees- Wiggins, Parker, Kansas freshman Joel Embiid, Kentucky’s Julius Randle and Oklahoma State point Marcus Smart- Exum hasn’t seen his pre-Draft stock take a hit due to overexposure in the NCAA.
Exum has been kept under wraps at the Australian Institute of Sport, having only matched up against top notch international competition briefly at the U17 and U19 World Championships over the past few years and in an Australian high school tournament against (mostly) substandard talent.
However the hype surrounding 19-year-old isn’t expected to take a fall even after the hugely talented point guard announced his intention to declare for the NBA Draft by signing with player agent Rob Pelinka, also the agent of NBA all-timer Kobe Bryant.
Dante Exum Hype Hits New Levels As Aussie Teen Talks About NBA Decision
Just don’t expect to see much of Exum in the lead-up to the Draft. Cleveland’s Dion Waiters, a client of Pelinka’s and a draftee in 2012, was seen by just a handful of teams after nominating for the draft; a move that ultimately paid off for the combo guard yet to achievement much for the so-so Cavaliers.
Exum is currently pegged to be drafted somewhere in the pick 4-6 range with experts predicting a possible rise in the standings as the Draft draws closer. Unfortunately the outlook isn’t all positive.
Draft Express, the bench mark when it comes to international scouting, made some concerning comments via Twitter when the news broke that the point guard would be bypassing a year of college development, honing in on Exum’s lack of exposure.
“Difficult choice for Exum, do you try and minimize risk and assure a spot in the top-7? Or do you go for it all and try be the #1 pick?” the prospect website’s creator Jonathan Givony tweeted.
Other tweets included:
“Exum’s biggest problem right now is that he simply hasn’t been seen all that much by the top decision makers of the worst teams in the NBA.”
“Exum made a name for himself at the U17 and U19 World Championships in July of 2012 and 2013. Unfortunately few (if any) GMs were there.”
“Exum did have a very strong Hoop Summit game vs (what we now know was) a very poor USA backcourt. He was terrific in the open court there.”
“In the practices of the Hoop Summit Exum mostly deferred to (current NBA players Sergey) Karasev and (Dennis) Schroeder. He wasn’t bad, but he certainly wasn’t top-5 pick good.”
Exum is fighting to become what could amazingly be Australia’s second No.1 overall selection at an NBA Draft and the fifth active Aussie in the league. While we may not see much (or any) of him on the court in the coming months, the prospect of having a generational talent from Down Under storm the world’s most competitive sporting league is more than enough to get excited about.
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