With the NBA Draft playing such a pertinent role in the Philadelphia 76ers’ future, it’s time to answer some of the questions surrounding the topic on Sixers Twitter.
The NBA Draft is always an entertaining topic to cover — especially so for the Philadelphia 76ers in recent years. It allows us to look ahead to the future prospects of the league, while giving us a rare amount of leniency in both interpretation and aspiration as we establish our feelings on an annually-diverse group of talents.
Nothing is guaranteed with the NBA draft. It’s almost the NBA’s version of the lottery, outside of the one that actually does go down to determine the order in which it takes place. People can spend weeks upon weeks covering the best prospects available, but inevitably someone is going to fall short of expectations. And, on the contrary, somebody is going to soar well above them.
Naturally, such an in-depth and oft-debatable topic is going to leave questions. Today, I’ll do my best to answer yours.
Best Player Available v.s. Team Fit
This is a really interesting topic, especially with the Sixers.
In general, I’m a proponent of drafting talent over fit in most scenarios. With the NBA draft being almost a crapshoot of sorts, the lack of guarantee makes aiming for the proverbial fences a better route than simply drafting for a rotational need that may not be relevant a few years down the road.
With the Sixers, however, they’ve worked themselves into somewhat of a BPA rut. They have too much talent at a handful of positions and not nearly enough to cover the rest. And while that could feasibly be rectified and even reversed in the coming years, it’s difficult to justify taking another big man — or something along those lines — given the state of their roster.
So, in that sense, I’d certainly understand the logic behind drafting a guard or a wing piece ahead of someone like Harry Giles — and likely advocate for such a move.
But the Sixers, in that same sense, are somewhat lucky. The best talents in this draft are virtually all located one through three position-wise, and thus they can do a bit of both here without too much concern. There’s a good chance that the best player available is going to be a guard or a small forward who could accompany Ben Simmons on the outside. The Sixers should definitely jump on that.
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Where that doesn’t apply quite as much is with Josh Jackson and De’Aaron Fox, who’d likely be the exceptions there. Neither is much of a shooter, and both present some pretty hefty spacing issues as a result. Given the depth of this NBA draft class though and the Sixers’ chronically mishandled frontcourt situation, I’d say avoiding those two is in their best interest.
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Frank Ntilikina’s Status for Next Season
I’m not an insider on Ntilikina’s status at the moment, but I’m operating under the assumption that he’d come over right away. Like we saw with Kristaps Porzingis, Dragan Bender, and Dante Exum in past years, the best of the best from international waters typically make their ways to the states in year one.
With that said, there is always going to be the occasional exception — like Dario Saric, as Sixer fans are well aware of.
Ntilikina is a really nice fit with the Sixers’ current roster, and somebody who’s certainly capable of making that jump right away. He’s a bit thin — but virtually every freshman guard is — and his physical tools, standing 6-5 with a 7-foot wingspan, help offset that.
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Ntilikina’s vision as a passer is probably the best outside of Markelle Fultz and Lonzo Ball in the top of this year’s class, and the prowess he has shown as an off-ball shooter with Strasbourg this season (translating that to 17/29 shooting from deep in the U18 European Championships) bodes well for his fit alongside Simmons.
His aforementioned wingspan also makes him a highly effective defender. A lot to like there in this NBA draft.