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Right now, Sidney isn't a draft pick, period, much less No. 1. He has the talent to be one, but right now he does not have the drive, focus or discipline to be a player NBA teams would dare even touch.
The thought has been that Sidney would enter the NBA Draft after this season, but this season hasn't gone as perhaps he'd planned. The 6-foot-10, 280-pounder is averaging just 8.2 points, 3.5 rebounds and 22 minutes per game for No. 17 Mississippi State.
I spoke with a couple of guys this week who know a lot more about basketball than I do, because that's all they write about. And they confirmed what my eyeballs have been telling me about Sidney and his future as a pro.
"I can't imagine he's draftable under any scenario right now," said Gary Parrish, who writes for CBSSports.com. "He's not very good, and he's heavy, and he's obviously got a lot of off-the-court issues. ... The natural ability to play in the NBA, it's there, but the other stuff, I don't know why anybody would invite him into their franchise at this point."
Parrish first saw Sidney as an oversized eighth-grader in Jackson. The road from then to now has been a winding and turbulent one, taking him from Jackson to Los Angeles, back to Starkville, through a 10-month-long NCAA investigation, with a violent detour in Hawaii nearly a year ago.
Sidney spent time with former NBA star John Lucas during the offseason to straighten out issues with his game and himself. If it's helped any, it's hard to tell.
He'll have moments where he really hustles and plays tough defense and gets to the basket. But they're not very common moments. Sidney seems to still struggle with conditioning.
"His career is directly tied to his weight in many ways," Parrish said. "And it's worth millions of dollars to him - literally, worth millions of dollars. And he can't, for whatever reason, keep the weight off. To me that's a bad, bad sign."
Jonathan Givony, owner of DraftExpress LLC (DraftExpress.com), consults for pro teams here and overseas. He said if the draft were held today, Sidney would not be taken.
"Natural talent, it's all there for him," Givony said. "But what everybody knows, there's some serious concerns about how serious he is about basketball. Is he the kind of guy you'd want to have on your team? How much of a distraction would he be, and is he worth it?"
Worth the trouble?
Has he been worth the trouble for MSU coach Rick Stansbury? Parrish doesn't think so.
Neither do I. Of course, Sidney has become an easy target for critics [insert weight joke here]. He's brought it on himself, and only he can shed the label he's earned by becoming that player so many thought he could be.
But becoming an NBA Draft pick next June? That'll take some doing.
"It's just disappointing, because he's a hell of a talent," said Parrish, "and the idea that he could go from the kid I saw when he was 13 years old to this is not funny, it's actually sad."
Brad Locke (brad.locke@ journalinc.com) covers Mississippi State for the Daily Journal and blogs daily at NEMS360.com.