NBA Mock Draft: Utah Jazz Select Joel Embiid From Kansas

NBA Mock Draft Pick #6 -- Joel Embiid, Center, Kansas

SB Nation's Jazz blog SLC Dunk explains the pick:

The Utah Jazz need everything, and when a potentially great player drops in the draft you have to investigate why that happens. In the case of Embiid, he just had surgery on his right navicular bone, because of a stress fracture. This type of injury can end a career before it starts, or severely hamper one that's already in the middle. For a bigman any foot or leg injury is a warning sign. For the Jazz, a team that has already gone through this once before with Curtis Borchardt (who had pins put into his navicular before the draft), and should know better. But with the number five pick the Jazz need to swing for the fences, in a draft that is supposed to be filled with talent. Few players are bigger than Embiid, and the risk of avascular necrosis is one they can afford to take with the depth they have inside already with Derrick Favors, Enes Kanter, and Rudy Gobert. Utah can afford to wait for Embiid to get healthy, and slowly bring him back over the course of his first two years on his rookie contract if need be. Utah will not need Embiid to be an impact player right away. Sure, other guys are healthy now, but the team wasn't going to be fighting for the playoffs even if they got the first pick in the draft this season. With 7'2 Ante Tomic apparently in talks to have his Spanish ACB contract bought out the Jazz do the smart thing by stockpiling depth inside and are free to make any number of moves during free agency.

More: Full NBA Draft Coverage

1 Cleveland Cavaliers: ANDREW WIGGINS 
2 Milwaukee Bucks JABARI PARKER
3 Philadelphia 76ers DANTE EXUM
4 Orlando Magic JULIUS RANDLE
5 Utah Jazz JOEL EMBIID
6 Boston Celtics
7 Los Angeles Lakers
8 Sacramento Kings
9 Charlotte Hornets
10 Philadelphia 76ers
11 Denver Nuggets
12 Orlando Magic
13 Minnesota Timberwolves
14 Phoenix Suns
15 Atlanta Hawks
16 Chicago Bulls
17 Boston Celtics
18 Phoenix Suns
19 Chicago Bulls
20 Toronto Raptors
21 Oklahoma City Thunder
22 Memphis Grizzlies
23 Utah Jazz
24 Charlotte Hornets
25 Houston Rockets
26 Miami Heat
27 Phoenix Suns
28 Los Angeles Clippers
29 Oklahoma City Thunder
30 San Antonio Spurs