One man’s attitude problem is another’s moxie but when you are about to make young, predominately black males incredibly wealthy overnight, you do a fair bit of character evaluation. No general manager wants his future face of the franchise to bring guns into the locker room like Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton. Fortunately, this year’s crop of NBA hopefuls seem like a remarkably squeaky clean bunch from the Mormon Jabari Parker to the stereotypically nice Canadians of Andrew Wiggins and Nik Stauskas. Alas, someone has to be tasked with picking the bad apples out of the crate, so here goes nothing.
Marcus Smart: The OK State combo-guard seems as good a place to start as any. Smart is extremely competitive. He plays with a chip on his shoulder, exudes on-court leadership, and hounds the ball like a terrier after his favorite tennis ball and kicks chairs when the game isn’t going his way. NBA people love this. It’s the killer instinct that is revered when discussing Kobe Bryant for example. What NBA people don’t love is going into the stands and violently pushing a fan. They also don’t love flopping and kicking a chair occasionally is alright but Smart seems inclined to do both. This isn’t a big deal in the grand scheme of things and it’s highly unlikely Smart does his best “Malice at the Palace” impression again but it’s probably enough to cost him a couple draft spots.
P.J. Hairston: The UNC shooting guard was dismissed from the college program this year for his off-court issues. Speeding, driving without a license, marijuana possession, and a pistol and ammunition mysteriously located outside his stopped rental car belonging to an ex-convict is not going to win you many brownie points with future employers in any line of work. All the charges have been dropped and Hairston has certainly been saying the right things in full damage-control mode of his draft stock, but his past makes it fairly obvious that it’s very risky to draft him close to home.
Mitch McGary: The Michigan PF/C also had an awkward parting with his college program after deciding to declare for the draft instead of facing the NCAA’s Draconian penalties of a year-long suspension for failing a drug test due to marijuana. Pretty shocking to hear about a young person smoking marijuana, I know. Of bigger concern is whether McGary’s back injuries become chronic enough to justify the use of medicinal chronic; a bigger problem for NBA teams than recreational drug use.
Scottie Wilbekin: The Florida point guard was suspended twice during his four years in Gainesville, including five games for the second offense. Wilbekin appears to have matured from these incidents but it’s never a good look for college seniors to have a spotty record.
Jusuf Nurkic and Clint Capela: A tale of two European pivots. Nurkic, from Bosnia, can be perceived as playing with too much attitude, often battling foul trouble and having to come off the bench as a result. On the other end of the spectrum, The Swiss Capela appears to play with too little attitude; shying away from contact, not getting after the boards as he should, and coasting in and out of games. Foreign players are really difficult to gauge in this respect but generally playing professional basketball overseas makes these prospects mature more often that not. The danger lies in a player that adjusts poorly to culture shock, as was the case with draft bust poster child Darko Milicic.
So there are some of your “bad boys” of the 2014 NBA draft, but to reiterate it’s a reach to really label any of these guys as questionable outside of maybe Hairston (whose drafting far from home should mitigate most of his issues). All Smart has to do is not go into the stands and he’s back to being a media darling. This is a pleasant draft for a change because unlike say, the NFL draft, we don’t have a glut of future felons to worry about and can just focus on how well these prospects will play NBA basketball.
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