Will Furkan Korkmaz Stay in Turkey Next Year?

Furkan Korkmaz was selected by the Philadelphia 76ers with the No. 26 overall pick, but will he even join the team this season?

With the NBA Draft coming to a close, many questions for the Philadelphia 76ers were answered, but at the same time, others were brought up in the process. The Philadelphia 76ers had an outstanding night, drafting Ben Simmons first overall and taking Timothe Luwawu with the 24th pick, and Furkan Korkmaz with the 26th overall pick.

All three of these picks are justifiable. There’s little room for argument on any of the three first picks of the Bryan Colangelo era.

That being said, there’s questions as to which of the players will actually join the Philadelphia 76ers next season.

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Ben Simmons undoubtedly will be a huge part of the team, and there’s also reason to believe Timothe Luwawu will join the team this year.

But with all international players — and even traditional American university players drafted in the second round — there’s always the question of whether or not they will play in the NBA right away, or if they will be a stashed player overseas for a few seasons.

The question always comes up, why draft a player that won’t even be with your team for the next few seasons? Well, stashing a player overseas allows you to retain a player’s draft rights while they develop into more full NBA players. All the while, you don’t have to pay them a dime, that is, until you have to buy out their international contract.

Furkan Korkmaz could easily be one of those players that is stashed overseas. At just 18 years old, he’s severely underdeveloped, and even in the European basketball world, he has not had much experience. One of my good friends who has immense knowledge about overseas basketball told me that Korkmaz’s coach with the Anadolu Efes often didn’t play young players, resulting in Korkmaz playing just 8.8 minutes per game this season.

That means that Korkmaz likely has a lot of developing to do, and putting him on the Sixers, a team already full of developing players, could inhibit him and the team.

From the Sixers standpoint, it makes sense that they would put him overseas, despite the temptation to add a backcourt player that can shoot.

Also, his contract costs $2 million to buyout, but according to Derek Bodner, that can be paid in installments, so it’s not as big of a deal as some have made it out to be.

From Korkmaz’s standpoint, it also makes sense to stay overseas for a bit. If he can hold out for three seasons, he will be able to be off of the rookie pay scale when he enters the NBA. At the moment, being a late first-round pick, there’s less room for money for him.

He can show his skill set to the Sixers on the Efes as he gets older, and make the case for paying him more money all the while.

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My initial reaction thinks that Korkmaz will not be a Sixer next season, or even the season after that. He will be a stashed player overseas, and if they like his development a few years down the road, they will attempt to buyout his contract. For both sides, I think this makes the most sense.