Australian teenage NBA prospect Dante Exum has declared he wants to be drafted to a team where he can make an immediate impact.
Since announcing last week he would skip the US college system to go directly into the NBA, the guard from the Australian Institute of Sport has jumped to fourth on ESPN’s influential mock draft board.
While there’s still months of hard training and workouts with prospective NBA teams ahead of the draft on June 26, Exum wants to be picked up by a club with big plans for him.
“I don’t want to go to a team, somewhere like the (Los Angeles) Clippers, that have Chris Paul and I’ll be kind of stuck behind him,” the 1.98m Exum said on Monday.
A primary case in point is countryman Patty Mills, who is more famous for his enthusiastic towel-waving from the sidelines after finding himself behind Tony Parker, Cory Joseph and Nando De Colo on the San Antonio Spurs’ point guard pecking order.
“I really want to go to a team that’s going to want me, need me, and hopefully I can get minutes in the first season,” said the 18-year-old Exum.
He admitted his decision to leap straight into the NBA draft was to mitigate future risk.
“The main thing was definitely some players don’t perform at college. It is a different game – also injuries and stuff,” he said.
“I would be under the microscope and all the scouts would be watching me (in college basketball). So I think it was just a smart move.”
He relied on his father Cecil, himself a former NBA player, as well as Boomers teammates Mills, Joe Ingles and Andrew Bogut for advice on the “daunting” decision.
“It’s only going to get crazier when I head over to the States,” Exum said.
“But I’ll take it one day at a time and that’s how I stay at ground level.”
Becoming an instant millionaire is another lifestyle change Exum will have to come to terms with, as he’s tipped to earn around $US5 million ($A5.71 million) for a first-year rookie contract plus millions more in shoe and other endorsement deals.
“It’s crazy to think that two months ago I was at the school championships playing with just my friends having fun and now it’s going to turn into a business,” he said.
“But I’ll definitely be smart with my money and my mum’s there to smack me in the head if I buy something stupid.
“The good thing about that is that I don’t have my licence, so I won’t be buying cars anytime soon.”
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