Andrew Wiggins Prepared to Hold Out for Hometown Raptors in this year’s Draft

Fresh off the news that he’s declaring for the nba draft, Kansas Jayhawks’ freshman Andrew Wiggins continues to make national headlines. Widely regarded as the player with the most upside in this year’s draft, Wiggins has the opportunity to enter the NBA and impact a franchise immediately. The Canadian phenom Andrew Wiggins is a projected top 3 pick in a very deep 2014 draft. The teams most likely to be rewarded with the top pick are the Milwaukee Bucks, Philadelphia 26ers and the Orlando Magic who are eagerly awaiting the outcome of the draft lottery on May 20th.

With none of these teams poised to turn their fortunes around in a hurry,sources say concern has been growing from inside the Wiggins camp. Warning flags have been raised for throwing the young 19 year old into an environment where he’s forced to be the best player immediately. There are worries that if he’s asked to do too much too soon, it may ultimately hinder his initial development. For this reason, there is speculation to believe that Wiggins may in fact holdout from whichever team selects him in favour for his hometown team, the Toronto Raptors.

This season the Raptors have placed themselves outside of the lottery and are positioned as a playoff team, with a we-first mentality. Wiggins coming in would fit in nicely with the bunch of guys already on the Raptors as he wouldn’t be asked to lead the team, for Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan have already established themselves as leaders on this roster. With word getting out that Wiggins is planning to hold out, Dwane Casey has already commented on what Wiggins’ speculative roll would be if and when he is on the Raptors roster next season. Casey claims to view Wiggins in the same regard as Terrence Ross. A quiet and humble kid, with monster offensive talent who’ll have to learn the game the right way, therefore earning every minute he gets on the court.

Past interviews with Wiggins has made it clear that he’d like to play for the Toronto Raptors one day. Wiggins can also be quoted saying that he’d “rather not play for the Bucks, no offense or anything. It’s just that you can see what they’re building over there. I’m failing to see where I’ll going to fit in– and to be honest it scares me.” Wiggins likes that Toronto is doing big things this year, and wants to be apart of their resurgence to NBA relevance now, and not later.

“I wanna be the reason why the Raptors win an NBA championship and put my city back on the map. It’s as simple as that man, Steve Francis didn’t wanna play in Vancouver, I don’t wanna play in Milwaukee…do I look like a hunter to you?” – Andrew Wiggins

Wiggins is likely to lose a small share of the uber-patriotic American fans with a bold statement like this, however those same patriotic folk should respect the sentiment. This is a hit Wiggins is well aware of and is willing to take in order to become the first great Canadian Toronto Raptor. Wiggins sees the potential in becoming Canada’s National basketball superstar. Anthony Bennett was granted with opportunity to steal his stage, however his subpar performance this season left many people wanting more from what Canada has to offer. The NCAA has shown only a sample size of what this kid has to offer; enter Andrew Wiggins, face of the Canadian basketball nation.

It is April 1st, by the way. For everyone reading this past noon – no hard feelings.