How The New NBA Draft Rule Impacts The Philadelphia 76ers

The Philadelphia 76ers use the NBA Draft to help their rebuild, but could a new rule for declaring draft eligibility hurt the team?

The Philadelphia 76ers are one of the most currently reliant teams on the NBA Draft. The next few years and their future competitiveness will largely be determined on draft nights, and has already begun to take shape due to some crucial picks and trades that have taken place on draft nights. All of a sudden, though, one rule change might impact the Sixers and which players end up in their possession.

According to multiple sources, the NCAA has changed the early-entry deadline to enter the NBA Draft to May 25th. This is a very important date, because it comes eight days after the NBA Draft Lottery, whereas prior to this new rule, the deadline came before the Lottery occurred.

What does this mean for Philly? Unfortunately, it can hurt the team. Now, players can wait and see the order of the draft, and if they are projected to go to a specific team that may have a top overall pick, or even be projected to go at any point in the first round, they could see where they are likely to end up, and say, “Hey, maybe waiting it out another year to avoid that team wouldn’t be such a bad idea.”

This is something that maybe Jahlil Okafor could have benefited from. It’s been reported several times since he was the third overall pick in the most recent draft for the Sixers that his camp did not want him on the Sixers, but it wasn’t exactly up to him. Since arriving in Philly, he hasn’t said anything bad about being on this tank-fest of a team, but it can certainly be assumed that he would rather be winning. After all, Okafor hasn’t really had to deal with losing in his basketball life, up until now.

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While this new rule obviously looks rough for Philly on the surface, it can actually help them out a lot. As Bobby Marks later pointed out on Twitter while explaining the new rule to his followers, the extra month allows players to work out at the combine, and get feedback from teams, and then decide if they want to declare for the draft or play another year of college basketball.

Obviously, this is an incredible rule in the college basketball world. Players that might have thought they were well suited for the NBA might get some eye-opening feedback from teams earlier than they could have before, which is incredibly valubale. In the same way, the Sixers can use this time to work out players, and let them know that it’s not all dreary in Philadelphia.

This extra month gives Sam Hinkie and Jerry Colangelo not only the chance he’s had in the past to evaluate talent, but also the chance to be up front with players and let them know that the dark times they’ve read and heard about in Philadelphia are nearly over. Hinkie can let players know that they will be a key part of a competitive future, and explain thoroughly that they have good reason to be excited about Philadelphia.

Sixers fans have high hopes for this year’s draft especially, and they should be assured that this new rule won’t be impacting their draft very much at all this season.

The bottom line is that this rule obviously tends to hurt the Sixers’ since they have been building and collecting through the draft, but that just may not be the case. They could be much better off with this new rule, just like everyone else is.