Jaylen Brown Can be Philadelphia 76ers Draft Fallback Plan

If the Philadelphia 76ers don’t get the picks that they want, Jaylen Brown is a decent fallback option.

The Philadelphia 76ers have a very important NBA Draft coming up. They have a guaranteed three first round draft picks this year, and a possible four if the ping pong balls fall in the right order for Philadelphia. If things really go in their direction, they could have two picks within the first four overall.

The Sixers are guaranteed to have a pick in the top four, and currently have locked up the best chances in the league to get the top overall pick. If all goes according to plan, they could have the first overall pick as well as the fourth. That’s the mentality a lot of fans who have been trusting this radical rebuilding process are thinking with.

They believe that all of the losing will pay off in this draft. Sam Hinkie, the general manager of the team, has implemented a losing culture in effort to secure top draft picks, and has yet to get a draft pick better than the third overall. Now, they have the best chances at the first, and they could be drafting Ben Simmons out of LSU, a player who could help completely turn their franchise around.

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I get it. That’s what trusting this process — that may or may not have been completely halted by the resignation of Sam Hinkie — has been all about. Believing that the way to build — if not through free agency — is through the draft, and finding a superstar out of college, or a player who can eventually be developed into a superstar. At the same time, though, there has to be a disaster plan, especially with the current format of how the draft order is determined.

The NBA Draft Lottery is in May. The order of the draft is determined by ping pong balls. The bottom 15 teams in the league all have balls in the pot, and the Sixers will have the most balls. So, having the worst record doesn’t automatically guarantee that a team will obtain the top pick.

The Sixers could be potentially watching three other teams draft before them. It’s a scenario that probably won’t occur, but it could occur. I think the team needs to figure out what to do in that situation.

If the Sixers are drafting fourth, lots of players that fans — and the front office, too — have had their eyes on the Sixers picking up will be gone. Ben Simmons is likely to be drafted first overall, followed by Brandon Ingram. The third overall pick could be quite variable, depending on what team has it, but the widely excepted third overall prospect is Dragan Bender. If not Bender, it will probably be Buddy Hield taken third, leaving Bender on the board. Bender doesn’t exactly fit the Sixers’ needs.

So, if the Sixers have the fourth pick, with those players off of the board, who should the Sixers take? Why not Jaylen Brown? Some might say Jamal Murray is a good option because of the Sixers’ obvious needs in the backcourt, but Brown is a highly athletic and versatile player that can help the Sixers in multiple areas, especially offensively.

There are reasons to draft Brown and not draft him, but a lot of that goes out the window when you fall to the fourth overall pick. At four, you no longer have the luxury of saying a player isn’t good enough to be on your team in many cases.

When we first look at Brown, the first thing we realize is that he is not a good shooter. He shot below 30 percent from beyond the arc, and above 40 percent from the field since a large majority of his scoring was at the rim. His free-throw shooting was below 70 percent, which is troubling for a small forward.

I do wonder, though, if this bad shooting has anything to do with his role on the California team. In high school, he shot much better from the 3-point line. Yes, the line was closer in high school, but I don’t think it would have been enough to make a nearly 15 percent difference.

I simply think that at Cal, Brown didn’t take enough 3-pointers, or make it a part of his game enough for him to ever find a rhythm. With some fine tuning, and some more implementation of the range shot into his game, I think he could, at the very least, make himself an average shooter.

Let’s also remember, that shooting is something Ben Simmons, the projected first overall pick, struggles with as well. Simmons shot just 33 percent from beyond the arc, and only made one 3-pointer in his entire freshman season at LSU.

What impresses me most about Brown is his ability to make himself work in whatever way he is asked. He’s great in transition, great in the half-court, and just an overall good scorer. Brown scored over 14 points per game in his freshman season.

The only problem is a lot of that scoring, as I mentioned earlier, was done at the rim at Cal, which would hurt the Sixers frontcourt, which is currently made up of big men who do their best work in the paint.

Still, coming into the Sixers offense, and the scheme head coach Brett Brown has, he would do well. He pushes the fast break and can score well in transition. Having him, a decent point guard, and some big men to work with in a lineup could be gorgeous.

Brown is athletic, and isn’t restricted to being a small forward. He can be a good wing, but could probably also transition to play as a shooting guard, and even a power forward in some smaller lineups.

Brown is no first overall pick, and in other seasons, he might not have even been a top-5 pick. But this year, he may be what the Sixers have to take if they fall to the fourth overall pick. This does not have to be looked at as a bad thing. He can be developed into a good player.

Next: Will Sixers Trade Salary Space for Draft Picks?

If we go into the draft expecting Jaylen Brown, but leave with Ben Simmons, the worst we can have happen is have exactly what we expected occur.

Jaylen Brown Can be Philadelphia 76ers NBA Draft Fallback Plan

By Josh Wilson | Apr 12, 2016

If the Philadelphia 76ers don’t get the picks that they want, Jaylen Brown is a decent fallback option.

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