Leading up to the NBA Draft, players often express confidence in their draft stock by neglecting to work out for teams outside of their perceived range.
It appears Emmanuel Muiday may instead be exercising some hubris in the pre-draft process.
Larry Brown, longtime NBA head coach and current coach at SMU - where Mudiay had committed to play before opting to sign a lucrative deal in China for his league-mandated post-high school season - spoke about the point guard's pre-draft process Monday.
Along with advocating for teams to draft him - "(Mudiay) is going to make everyone on his team better" - Brown revealed that Mudiay is working out for three teams in the coming weeks.
Those teams - the Los Angeles Lakers, Philadelphia 76ers, and New York Knicks - will be picking at Nos. 2, 3, and 4, respectively.
While his camp can always change course after the fact, it seems Mudiay is fairly confident he'll be taken in the top four. That's far from a certainty. While the Lakers and Knicks are believed to like him, they're all over the map right now, and the 76ers are believed to like D'Angelo Russell better than Mudiay.
ESPN's Chad Ford has Mudiay ranked as the No. 4 prospect and his latest mock has him going to the Knicks, while DraftExpress ranks him fourth but has him sliding to No. 6 in the draft.
It's conceivable that Mudiay could be in for a bit of a slide on draft night if this remains his plan. If he slips through the top four, the Orlando Magic are unlikely to take another guard at No. 5, and while he'd be a good fit with the Sacramento Kings or Denver Nuggets - in a post-Ty Lawson world, perhaps - those teams may be uncomfortable using a lottery pick on a player they haven't worked out or gotten to know.
That's especially true of Mudiay, who spent the year in China, where video and number translations are somewhat hard to come by. At some point, the talent and potential will win out - there's a reason he's ranked as a top-four prospect - and a team will land themselves a huge point guard with great athleticism who's going to be a terror driving to the rim.
It's just a little risky to assume that will be in the top four.
