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Former Michigan guard Nik Stauskas smiles during an ESPN interview during the first day of the NBA draft combine in Chicago on May 15, 2014.

(Melanie Maxwell | The Ann Arbor News)

ANN ARBOR -- At this point, there's nowhere to go but up.

Nik Stauskas, the multi-tooled guard from Michigan, is projected as a late lottery pick in the NBA draft. The buzz surrounding him is somewhere between praising and raving. His agent, Mark Bartelstein of Priority Sports and Entertainment, isn't embellishing when saying, "His stock is very high right now, there's no question about that."

And there's no question what Stauskas wants now: To break into the top 10 of the June 26 draft.

"I think it's very feasible," Bartelstein said. "He's a heck of a player and he's an incredible kid. I think people are looking at him and seeing he's so much bigger than they had realized. He's (over 6-foot-6), easy, and is a really dynamic athlete. He's going to be a heck of an NBA player and I think people know it."

Stauskas, the 2013 Big Ten player of the year, is scheduled to work out for the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday and the Boston Celtics next week.

The two workouts will be Stauskas' first individual meetings with NBA teams. The process -- scheduling interviews and workouts for specific franchises -- is a tactical undertaking meant to bolster that aforementioned stock.

Because of that, Stauskas won't be meeting with any and every team that requests a visit. Whereas Glenn Robinson III, Stauskas' former Michigan teammate and fellow NBA hopeful, is projected later in the draft and therefore meets with a gamut of suitors, Stauskas' scope is limited.

"Nik is going to do a very limited group of workouts," said Bartelstein, the founder of Priority Sports and father of former Michigan captain Josh Bartelstein. "That's something that I'm kind of evaluating on a daily basis. The draft is kind of like a jigsaw puzzle -- it's scattered all over the place and, every day, that puzzle comes together a little bit more."

Bartelstein said Stauskas will meet with "a select group of teams." Many mock drafts project him as the 12th overall pick to the Orlando Magic, while others believe the Philadelphia 76ers could target him with the No. 10 pick.

As for Los Angeles and Boston, the Lakers sit at No. 7 overall, while the Celtics hold the No. 6 and No. 17 picks in the first round.

Bartelstein said Stauskas will meet with "a couple more" teams after Los Angeles and Boston.

"We're talking to some other teams and we'll what happens here in the next couple of days what we're going to do," he said.

Stauskas averaged 17.5 points per game and dished out a team-best 118 assists last season at Michigan. In what he called at the time "an easy decision," he declared for the draft on April 15, bypassing his final two years of collegiate eligibility.

Brendan F. Quinn covers University of Michigan basketball and football. Follow him on Twitter for the latest on Wolverines hoops. He can be contacted at bquinn@mlive.com