Andrew Wiggins is No.1 in 2014 NBA Draft

The Cleveland Cavaliers chose to use their first overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft on a promising, athletic player from Canada in Andrew Wiggins (203 cm, Kansas’14). Going into the final minutes allotted to the team to make their pick there was much speculation on whether they would go with Wiggins’ upside, or Duke forward Jabari Parker (203 cm, Duke’14). In the end, the Cavs opted to make Andrew the second ever Canadian player to be chosen as the number one pick in an NBA Draft. Anthony Bennett, who was selected by Cleveland first overall in 2013, was the first Canadian to go as the first pick.

Jabari Parker was quickly selected by Milwaukee Bucks with the second pick. Things worked out for the parties concerned as Parker expressed that he preferred to play for the Bucks. Cameroonian big man Joel Embiid(213 cm, Kansas’14), who was widely considered to be in the mix as a potential first pick, fell to third after he recently underwent foot surgery to repair a stress fracture. Embiid was scouted to be a strong defender who could have shored up any team’s frontcourt quite well. He now joins the Sixers, who traded for another injured big man in the 2013 draft in Nerlens Noel. Assuming there are no major setbacks to Embiid’s recovery, he could prove to be a good value pick for Philly at the spot he was taken.

The Orlando Magic then picked up Arizona’s Aaron Gordon(206 cm, Arizona’14) with the fourth pick.

Australia’s Dante Exum (198 cm), who opted to skip a year of college as his route into the NBA, was taken by the Utah Jazz fifth overall.

The highest picked European player was Croatia’s Dario Saric (204 cm) who was taken by the Philadelphia 76ers with the 12th pick. He, or rather his draft rights, were then traded to the Denver Nuggets. Saric is not expected to play in the NBA right away, because the player recently signed a two-year deal with Turkish club Anadolu Efes Istanbul.

Here is a complete list of how the entire first round of the draft went down: