Thon Maker, Australia
Once a YouTube sensation, Thon Maker hasn’t exactly progressed the way that many scouts projected he would over his high school career.
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While it’ll certainly be tempting for the 76ers to select him with either the No. 24 or No. 26 pick (granted Maker is still available), he’s not the player that this team needs.
He’s extremely skinny, doesn’t have the best basketball knowledge and has a bit of a “me-first” attitude (he displayed this by finding a loophole in the draft which allowed him to become draft-eligible right out of high school).
Maker’s extremely athletic and extremely tall (at 7’1″), but is extremely skinny at just 216 pounds and will need to put on a lot of weight (and fast) if he plans to compete at the NBA level. There’s also talk that he may need a few years in the NBA D-League before playing in The Association.
Again, the Sixers do not need another big man, and standing at over 7 feet tall, that’s precisely the mold that Maker fits.
Sure, he has a ton of upside, but he’s undoubtedly the biggest question mark in this year’s draft class.
And he’s not the player that the Sixers need.
Next: Denzel Valentine, Michigan State Universtiy