Philadelphia 76ers Should Trade Up for Another Lottery Pick

The Philadelphia 76ers own a number of tradable assets, and it would benefit the team to make a move for a second lottery pick come Thursday’s draft.

The Philadelphia 76ers are in a prime spot to turn their losing culture in the right direction, but there’s just one more step they’ll have to take in order to speed up their rebuild.

Philly needs to trade up for another lottery-pick on Thursday night.

Over the past three seasons, the Sixers have a combined record of 47-199 (23.6 winning percentage) and had only 10 wins this past season (the second-lowest amount of single-season victories in NBA history).

But the silver lining behind all the losing is actually quite brilliant: it was by design.

The Sixers’ former general manager, Sam Hinkie, constructed a roster that was designed to lose in order to gain draft picks and other tradable assets over the past three seasons. Although Philadelphia continued to lose on the court, they certainly won off of it.

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Hinkie, who resigned from his position this past May, left Philadelphia in a prime position to succeed moving forward. The organization now has a number of enticing assets (including draft picks and players) heading into Thursday’s draft, and it’s very possible that the Sixers will trade up for a second lottery pick.

After three-straight losing seasons, it’s time that the Sixers start to show improvement in the win column, and the organization can jump-start this action by trading up for another top-pick on Thursday.

With the Sixers expected to draft the 6’10” Ben Simmons out of LSU with the first pick in the draft, and with Dario Saric, Joel Embiid, Nerlens Noel and Jahlil Okafor (all standing at 6’10” or taller) already on the roster, it’s time for the Sixers to start pursuing guards. It’s very possible that one of the aforementioned big-men will be traded come draft night, and it’s something that the 76ers’ front office should do in order to improve the roster construction of the current team — this year more than ever.

There are a number of guards with a ton of upside in the 2016 draft class that would fit perfectly with the Sixers both now and in the long-run. Guards with the caliber of Jamal Murray and Kris Dunn don’t come around every year, and both would fit right in with the Sixers’ young core (including Simmons).

The 76ers own a number of other team’s first-round picks to trade with, as well. This year, they have both the Miami Heat (No. 24 overall) and Oklahoma City Thunder’s (No. 26) first round picks. Next year, they have the Los Angeles Lakers’ top-three protected pick (unprotected in 2018) and the Sacramento Kings’ 2019 unprotected first-round pick. Any combination of these draft picks paired with one of the Sixers’ young big-men would certainly be appealing to any team across the league.

In other words, the Sixers currently have a team loaded with young, talented big-men and also have a number of intriguing draft picks that they could trade. There are multiple guards in this draft who can help the team both immediately and down the road. After three-straight horrific seasons, it’s time to see the results of Hinkie’s tanking-process add up in the win column.

With Bryan Colangelo now at the helm, it’s possible that he’ll want to shake the roster up in order to make a statement at his first opportunity (Thursday’s draft). Colangelo has been very public about supporting Hinkie’s plan and respects the amount of assets and trade-chips that Hinkie collected during his three-year tenure in the City of Brotherly Love. Colangelo has also been vocal about his intentions to put a winning team on the floor sooner rather than later.

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The Sixers have the capability to trade up for a second lottery pick, draft a guard to go along with Simmons and improve their current roster. And it’s exactly what the organization needs to do.

Now, they’ll just have to do it.