2014 NBA Draft: Wiggins or Jabari?

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The 2014 NBA Draft has been receiving plenty of hype for almost over a year. It has been said by many that there will be many stars to come out of this draft. With the 2014 NBA Combine behind us and the 2014 NBA Draft Lottery in front of us, the highly anticipated draft is a little over a month away. Since their days in high school, Andrew Wiggins and Jabari Parker have been looked at as two of the NBA’s future superstars. They both went “one and done” in college and are ready for the upcoming draft. The question, however, is who will have the better NBA career.

Wiggins has had high expectations for a long time. In high school, Wiggins was labeled as “The Next LeBron” by many. The young Canadian small forward decided to play his college ball for Bill Self at Kansas, and before he ever even played a game in a Kansas jersey, he was being picked number one overall in mock drafts by almost everyone. Now, with the draft almost here, Wiggins is still ranked near the top.

At 6-foot-8, Wiggins has very good size, though he only weighs 197 pounds, which is very slim. He’s only 19 years old, which is another plus. Also, Wiggins has insane athleticism. His tremendous quickness and speed allows him to run the floor well, keep up on the defensive end, and go from one end of the court to the other end faster than most. With his long arms and athleticism, Wiggins is a good on-ball defender and has the potential to be one of the best defenders in the league in a few years.

Many of the problems for Wiggins are on the offensive end. He is very raw offensively and doesn’t have a reliable jump shot. Wiggins can drive and finish inside well, but if someone closes his driving lane, he’ll struggle. He has lots of work to do on his offensive game. That’s a major problem for Wiggins. Not only might he have issues offensively in the NBA, Wiggins also had problems in college at Kansas. In the Round of 32 against Stanford on March 23rd, Wiggins scored a pathetic 4 points on 1-6 shooting (that’s 16.7 percent) and turned the ball over four times in 34 minutes.

Meanwhile, Jabari Parker was also a highly awaited freshman. At Duke, Jabari excelled and was a vital piece of the team. Parker averaged 19.1 points and 8.7 rebounds per game in his freshman year. After the season, it wasn’t a certainty that Parker would declare for the draft. There was a lot of speculation that Parker would stay in school for his sophomore year. Instead, he decided to go pro.

Jabari Parker can play both the power and small forward positions. He’s 6-foot-8 and weighs 241 pounds. Like Wiggins, Parker is only 19 years old, too. Parker has good size coming into the league. Unlike Wiggins, Jabari Parker is a very good offensive player. He can score in many different ways, whether it is spotting up, posting up, driving inside, pulling up, or isolating. The young forward has drawn comparisons to Paul Pierce and Carmelo Anthony due to his terrific play. As evident by the 19.1 points he averaged per game at Duke, Parker is a great scorer. Also, he’s very athletic, but not as athletic as Andrew Wiggins. Parker is a great rebounder for someone of his size position. In his rookie year, Parker should do well, as he is ready for the NBA right now. In fact, he is one of the most NBA-ready prospects in the entire class. Though he is ready for the league right now, he still has plenty of potential due to his great size, ability score, rebound, and his decent athleticism.

The problem for Jabari is his defense. He has been questioned on the defensive side of the ball due to his lack of effort at times. Also, he must improve his defensive awareness. Though he has potential to be a good defender (has a 7’0″ wingspan), he’s not there yet and has plenty of work to do. Parker has tremendous skills on the offensive side of the ball, but he must improve on the defensive side if he wants to become a superstar in the NBA.

Both Wiggins and Parker have tremendous talent and potential. The question, as I stated earlier, is who will be better. When it’s all said and done, I see Jabari Parker having the better career out of the two. He’s more ready now and has a bright future. Wiggins has lots of potential, but so does Jabari. The problems on the offensive end for Wiggins are larger than those on the defensive end for Jabari. Though I see Wiggins becoming a star in the future, I envision Jabari becoming a superstar due to his ability to score and rebound, size, defensive upside, and potential.

The NBA Draft Lottery is this Tuesday on ESPN at 7 p.m. EST.

Xaivier Carr Jaxson is an analyst and writer for Tru School Sports. Follow him on Twitter.

Information from ESPN.go.com and Draftexpress.com was used in this article.