As the 2015-2016 draws to a close, the NBA draft is beginning to peek above the horizon. With a potential four picks in the first round, the 2016 NBA draft board holds the answers to many questions for the Philadelphia 76ers.
With a 2016 NBA draft setting the starting line of the official climb to the top of the league for the Philadelphia 76ers, at what point is it appropriate to turn our attention away from a difficult season and towards the promise of tomorrow, and an NBA draft which has the potential to hold as many as four first round draft picks for the Philadelphia 76ers, a team desperate to reverse the course of flirting with the woes of the worst records for teams in the NBA.
It’s time to hype the hype, set the sights away from a win loss column and towards the calendar. The NBA Draft looms in the distance. The NBA lottery approaches. Unless you are counting on the Sixers getting the first pick and drafting Ben Simmons as the only success factor, the news is both positive and welcome.
First of all, let’s set some dates so we are all on the same page. The NBA season will officially end on April 16, 2016. On that date, the teams without post season aspirations, including our Philadelphia 76ers, will begin the arduous task of blueprinting how to build a successful team during the off-season. In early May, from the 11th through the 15th, hopefuls from the NCAA and around the world will participate in the 2016 NBA combine. After that first step, the NBA lottery will be conducted on May 17th to set the order for the NBA draft to be held on June 23rd.
As a result of that lottery, the front office of the Philadelphia 76ers will learn whether they do have the first pick of the NBA draft, and whether they will also benefit from the first pick of a struggling Los Angeles Lakers team. Let’s discuss those odds. While the Lakers are sitting with the second worst record in the league, they have a top three protected pick. With the lottery, that gives the Sixers a probability of 44.2% to benefit from the Lakers pick this season.
Meanwhile, the team only has a 25% chance of getting the top pick in this NBA draft. But the team has negotiated the rights to swap first round picks with the Sacramento Kings, a team which is also struggling in its own right. Currently, the Kings sit as the 24th team in the league. That gives them a 4.3% chance of earning the first pick of this draft, which will be added to the odds of the Sixers to give us a nearly 30% chance of picking first. As the Kings struggle, the odds of their pick grow increasingly more favorable of netting the top pick, which will simply benefit the draft of the Sixers.
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In addition to the pick of the Lakers, the Sixers are also in line to benefit from the picks of the Miami Heat, currently projected to come at the 22 selection, as well as that of the Oklahoma City Thunder, projecting at the 26 selection.
So the Sixers, if all things end well on lottery night, could be selecting first, fourth, twenty-second, and twenty-sixth on draft night. Lets see how our board lines up for us with those picks?
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