Philadelphia 76ers Prospects: Is Shawn Long the Sixers next Power Forward?

After months of front court gridlock, the 76ers now have a shortage of bigs after the Nerlens Noel trade. Could Shawn Long be the 76ers backup power forward long term?

On Wednesday. February 22 2017, the Philadelphia 76ers made a trade. The team shipped its starting power forward, Ersan Ilyasova to the Atlanta Hawks for 2 future second round picks.

While on paper the Hawks seemed like the clear winner of the trade, in reality, the true winner was Dario Saric. Without Ersan, Dario has seen an uptick in his minutes per game, with a similar bump in his statistical performance.

While Dario has been playing at an extremely high level post-trade, he is currently the only power forward on the team’s roster. The 76ers have been forced to play Robert Covington, arguably the team’s best small forward, at power forward in the roughly 18 minutes per game Dario is on the bench.

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For a team that is so focused on the future and developing prospect this is far from an ideal situation. With one roster spot currently unoccupied the 76ers should take a serious look at a player in their own back yard, Delaware 87ers power forward Shawn Long.

As a child, Shawn Long took solace in the game of basketball after both his father and grandmother passed away. After growing to a respectable height of 6-7 as a sophomore in high school, Long found a home in the post, and began his assertion to serious NCAA prospect.

After dominating in AAU and growing to 6-10, Shawn committed to play at Mississippi State, but would spend the bulk of his college career as the starting power forward for the Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns.

As a freshman, Long was named the Sun Belt Conference Freshman of the Year and would go on to average a double-double over his college career. As a senior, Long was awarded the Sunbelt Conference Player of the Year after averaging 18.9 points per game and 12.1 rebound in 30 minutes per game and ended his career as the only player in Sunbelt Conference history to score over 2000 points and bring down over 1000 rebounds.

After graduating from Louisiana-Lafayette, Shawn Long entered for the 2016 NBA draft process.

Long, at 23 was not viewed as a top prospect, and wasn’t even invited to the NBA combine. Even though he was the primary weapon on a team with NBA point guard Elfrid Payton, Long was ranked the 91^st best prospect in the 2016 NBA draft.

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Since there was little chance of Long being drafted, his best opportunity to make an NBA roster was to dominate in the NBA D-League, and dominate he did.

Shawn Long has averaged 20.3 points and 11 rebound as the starting center for the Deleware 87ers. Though he projects as an NBA power forward, Shawn Long has excelled as a center, and has shown that his game translates very well from college to the pros. Long has been rewarded for his efforts by being named to the D-League All-Star team.

While Shawn Long’s NBA success is far from guaranteed, he has proven himself to be a formidable player at every level he has played, and very well could continue this streak with the 76ers.

Six of the players on the D-League All Star roster have already received call ups to the big league, and Long looks like he could be the next in line. As teams begin to waive veterans in favor of securing young talent, Long’s days with the 87ers appear to be numbered.

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The 76ers need someone to back up Dario Saric both this season and going forward, and Shawn Long is uniquely positioned to help the team both now and in the future. His rebounding abilities would fit very well with the 76ers defensive identity, and his midrange game could help to space the floor for the 76ers second team. A 10-day contract looms in Shawn Longs immediate future; let’s just hope the 76ers are the team too willing to offer it.