Faith Hope and Charity
It will take faith in the organization to believe they will do the right thing come that 2018 NBA Draft. We know that the 2017 NBA Draft picks did not all land in Philadelphia. Picks 39 and 46 were sold outright to the Los Angeles Clippers and the Milwaukee Bucks respectively. And while neither Jawun Evans nor Sterling Brown is starting for either team, both have already seen spot duty and despite being a year behind, and are having comparable seasons to that of Philadelphia 76ers Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot.
The Philadelphia 76ers, once the marquis gem of the NBA in terms of getting young players ready to play at the NBA level, has found it rough-going this season. Now that the team is entering a draft with the likely two firsts and six overall picks scenario, the team is already developing a developing dilemma with a logjam of progress for both Markelle Fultz and Furkan Korkmaz. The question now is, how many players will the team take on next year?
No more than four
In the past, Bryan Colangelo has drawn the line in the sand at four draft picks. And in 2017, he made good on that by selecting Markelle Fultz for the Philadelphia 76ers, drafting and stashing picks 25, 36, and 50, and selling picks 39 and 46 outright. That had the effective delay of redshirting three draft prospects for the team until the roster had sufficient open slots and the players had another year to mature. Since Bryan Colangelo has already advocated the NBA minimum age be set at 20, the draft-and-stash of selected players ensures they arrive at the right age range to the team.
So far, the team has been harvesting the picks sown by former team executive Sam Hinkie. But that crop begins to wane in the upcoming years. When that happens, the team will need to onboard players to fill out their roster via free agency . For now, the team has enough draft prospects in the 2018 pipeline to avoid NBA Free agency altogether. But for now, the draft is a place of hope for the Philadelphia 76ers fans to find one more piece to the NBA championship puzzle.