Can Philadelphia 76ers Find 25 All-Time NBA Draft 2nd Rounder?

Philadelphia Pick 36 Options

The Philadelphia 76ers 36 pick is slightly lower than a late first round pick. In the 2017 NBA Draft, that means a quality player may fall to the team here. Not one to reinvent the wheel, I am piggy-backing off Owen Nelson’s Position Rankings article. In his story, Nelson lists the top 15 prospects at each position.  Since an NBA Draft selects just 60 players overall, there should be plenty of ready made names to point to. So let’s examine who could be selected by the Philadelphia 76ers, and we can use players ranked six through eight as the projected players still on the board.

Four players who catch my eye are center Jonathan Jeanne, France; small forward Wesley Iwundu, Kansas State; shooting guard Josh Hart, Villanova; and power forward Jordan Bell, Oregon.

With the 36th pick of the 2017 NBA Draft, the Philadelphia 76ers select….

Center Jonathan Jeanne, France is a 7-foot-2 center hailing from SLUC Nancy of the LNB Pro A on loan from Le Mans Sarthe. Wow, that’s a mouthful. And he has plans as well. You see, he’s already made it known that he wants to play in the NBA now, not later.

That may be too tall of a tale for the Philadelphia 76ers, who will likely see the 19 year old skinny frame and see “two-year project”. But his 7-foot-7 wingspan is awfully difficult to walk away from. On one hand, he is the French version of Joel Embiid, as he has very good ball handling skills, surprisingly considering his height. On the other hand, he has good foot movement and instinctively sets his body into optimal positions to defend. And finally, he has even shown offensive panache,  hitting sink pull-ups off isolations as well as three-pointers.