The Draft
Joel Embiid declared for the draft in early April, and bar anything unforeseen, was a lock for the top-three. His back was healing right on schedule, and after a few workouts with the Cavaliers, experts were tentatively predicting them to select him with the first overall pick.
But just days before the draft, Joel underwent foot surgery to repair a navicular bone in his right foot. It was a surgery that hadn’t been particularly kind to big men. Many never fully have their speed and agility return. Embiid was now being branded as an injury-prone big man, whose inability to stay healthy would cost him a productive career, queue Greg Oden.
Still shaken from the Anthony Bennett catastrophe two years prior, the Cavs weren’t willing to take such a risk. They opted to go with the safer pick, Embiid’s teammate, Andrew Wiggins.
The Bucks at No. 2 always had their sights set on Jabari Parker, and Joel was taken at No. 3 by Philadelphia.