NBA Rumors Round-Up
NBA Rumors: Andrew Wiggins Declaring for Draft
Jeff Hawkins is an award-winning sportswriter with more than four decades in the industry (print and digital media). A freelance writer/stay-at-home dad since 2008, Hawkins started his career with newspaper stints in Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, Upstate New York and Illinois, where he earned the 2004 APSE first-place award for column writing (under 40,000 circulation). As a beat writer, he covered NASCAR Winston Cup events at NHIS (1999-2003), the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks (2003-06) and the NFL's Carolina Panthers (2011-12). Hawkins penned four youth sports books, including a Michael Jordan biography. Hawkins' main hobbies include mountain bike riding, 5k trail runs at the Whitewater Center in Charlotte, N.C., and live music.
All posts by Jeff HawkinsUpdated15 Oct 2021
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Andrew Wiggins will announce he’s leaving Kansas after one season for the NBA at a news conference on Monday afternoon, sources told ESPN.com.
The school released a statement that the 6-foot-8 freshman from Canada will make an announcement Monday at 3 p.m. ET.
Wiggins averaged 17.1 points and 5.9 rebounds this past season and is expected to be taken somewhere in the top three in June’s NBA draft. Wiggins was the Big 12 freshman of the year and a first-team all-conference selection.
Unlike some of the other top draft prospects, including his teammate Joel Embiid, Wiggins has never created any doubt over his intentions. He’s always been on the one-and-done plan and even though the Jayhawks’ season came to a close earlier than expected, it’d be a mistake not to stick with it and make the jump now.
Wiggins failed to live up to the high expectations he came in with, but he’s still one of the top prospects available. He likely wouldn’t fall past four in the worst case scenarios. He’s still in the mix for the top overall selection, although his four-point, four-turnover performance in his collegiate finale against Stanford didn’t help his case much.
Wiggins possesses great upside, though. He has all the tools to be an elite, two-way player at the next level. His stock is weighed down solely by questions about whether he will ever consistently play up to his potential. For Wiggins the pre-draft process will be more about selling teams on his desire to be great, not his ability to do so.
For much of the regular season, Kentucky coach John Calipari has been telling NBA executives that his prized twin guards—Aaron and Andrew Harrison—would be returning to Lexington for their sophomore season.
But a source close to the process told Sporting News that no such decision has been made yet, especially with the Wildcats heading into the Final Four.
Coming into the season, the Harrison twins were regarded as likely one-and-done candidates, but their struggles throughout the regular season created a belief that they’d be back. However, with their stock getting back into the first-round range, there’s reason to revert back to the original plan.
The twins’ improvement has been one of the biggest reasons behind Kentucky’s late success. They’ve displayed great poise in close game situations, handling tough defensive assignments and making clutch buckets when they’re needed the most.
If there’s any chance of them returning still, it almost certainly goes out the window with a win next weekend.
Glen Davis was dressed and left the Clippers locker room as soon as the game was over without speaking to reporters. Despite having incidents in the past, Rivers was adamant this was a one-game punishment and nothing more.
“No, we’re not going to get into the whole Baby thing; this has not been building,” Rivers said. “He was emotional tonight, and we told him to go sit down. I just thought he was a distraction, and when guys are a distraction, I don’t think they should be on the bench. If you’re a distraction for anybody on the bench that should be paying attention to the game, then go sit in the back so our guys can watch the game.”.
For those of you who missed it, Davis was ejected by Rivers after the two exchanged words in a Clippers’ win against the Houston Rockets. Davis has always been known as an emotional player, though, so this incident is far from surprising.
Davis has only been playing about 13 minutes a game since joining the Clippers. That’s less than half of what he was seeing on a regular basis with the Orlando Magic. Perhaps he envisioned having a bigger role, but he’s not foreign to the necessary sacrifices that winning a championship require. Davis is a fiery competitor who wants to win; expect him to be back on the right page by the next time the Clippers are in action.
