If Philadelphia 76ers Land 1 and 4 in NBA Draft, what is cost for trading to 2?

As Philadelphia 76ers will have significant interest in the NBA draft, and if they land the Los Angeles Lakers pick at either four or five, could they move back to the 2 spot?

Scenarios. When you are looking at nine wins in an NBA season, sanity might borrow imagination as a means to deal with disappointment. If your team is the Philadelphia 76ers, you have plenty of opportunity from which to draw upon to forge a hope filled sanctuary. The NBA draft is one such event, holding as many as four first round picks is plenty of reason to become optimistic for the team. But in this 2016 NBA draft, is there a true answer for the question: Simmons or Ingram? First of all, let’s examine the ceiling of Ben Simmons:

And then we turn our attention to Brandon Ingram. He is also projected at the first pick of the 2016 NBA draft, and rightfully so.

With two talented prospects, and with multiple first round picks, the inevitable question deserves to be asked. What is the cost of moving up? Unlike the popular NFL draft value chart which has been public for years, allowing for analysis and vetting to confirm trades both up and down the draft order, there is no such agreed upon public table for the NBA draft. And so, any speculation of what a trade on draft day to move either up or down remains guesswork.

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First of all, does the objective of moving up to the second pick hold any value for the Philadelphia 76ers? If you agree that the top prospects remain both Ben Simmons and Brandon Ingram, then the answer should be yes. Even if you do not agree that there is a major drop off in talent level between two and four, the fact that the Sixers could corner the top two draft picks of the draft. While that is certainly a matter for the record books, the Sixers are sitting on a roster filled with young talented players. As the team moves forward, if the team ends up with more than a limited number of NBA rookies, the obligation of head coach Brett Brown may suffer simply by having too many mouths to feed.

Part of the risk of overtaxing our developmentally proficient coaching staff is minimized simply due to the NBA lottery, and the likelihood of the Los Angeles Lakers’ pick conveying to the Sixers. If it does not occur, that pick is rolled over into the 2017 NBA draft, a draft where the Sixers have just one first round pick. If the Lakers’ pick rolls forward, that is one rookie who will not show up in a Philadelphia 76ers jersey. But if we do end up with the Lakers pick, what could we end up with if we wanted to move up and target both Ingram and Simmons?

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Well, if we get the first pick, the Lakers pick would translate into either a four or five pick. Depending on who does get the second pick from the lottery could impact on the asking price. But if the Sixers land the four pick, the team should be able to leap two spots with the Oklahoma City Thunder pick, currently projected at 26. If the pick falls to five, then the Sixers would certainly likely be forced to include the Miami Heat’s pick, currently projected at 24. At that spot, the team may need to include a player or two as well. If the Miami pick improves, that could be enough to move from five to two.

Keep in mind, this is speculative. If the team holding the second pick has multiple offers, or prefers to make the pick themselves, the cost could inflate rapidly or simply end up in the “not for sale” category. But with projected draft picks at one, four, twenty-two, and twenty-six, the team should have plenty of firepower to grab both the first and second picks if they can find a willing partner.