The Philadelphia 76ers have four second round picks that should not be overlooked. Good shooters will be available when the Sixers are on the clock in the second round. How the Sixers use these second rounders will be an important part of the overall success of the draft.
Second round success stories are always heart-warming and fun to watch. But finding these diamonds in the rough is an extremely difficult task. Though with that being said, every year there is usually one second rounder that comes out and makes a name for himself (ie: Draymond Green, The Guy on the Bucks That We Aren’t Going to Name, Goran Dragic, Isaiah Thomas, Dillon Brooks and so on.)
Every team’s goal is to educatedly guess right on these second rounders. Luckily enough for the Philadelphia 76ers, they have the most educated guesses in the second round out of all the teams.
Having four second round picks provides a lot of options to the Sixers. However, there isn’t enough roster spots to take on four separate second round players in this draft. So expect a couple of the picks to be used in trades.
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In the 2017 Draft, the Sixers also had four second round picks and they decided to sell two of them off and use the other two on “draft and stash” guys. One being Jonah Bolden and the other being Mathias Lessort. I would think the Sixers would go in a similar direction with these picks this year also. But, with the amount of shooters slotted to be available in the second round don’t be surprised if the Sixers take a chance on one of these guys.
Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk (Yes, I did have to copy and paste his name)
For all of our sakes I am going to refer to him as “Svi’ from now on. Svi has shown a ton of development in his game over the years. He started out playing U16 ball for Ukraine and has since blossomed to become a full-time starter at Kansas.
Svi already has an NBA ready body at 6-8, 210 pounds. For his size he is a great three-point shooter, during his senior year at Kansas he shot 44 percent from deep. His career three-point percentage is in the 40s as well, so last year wasn’t just a flash in the pan for him.
A great comparison for Svi would be Dario Saric. Svi showed he was very comfortable with the ball in his hands when he played in Ukraine. Like Dario, he has a great ability to read defenses and isolate a smaller guy one-on-one or make the right pass.
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Also like Dario, his weakness coming into the draft is how much he can develop. However with his size and shooting ability already being great, I think he is worth the chance. In addition, the Sixers should still have Dario and Ersan Ilyasova on the roster to groom this kid into a near copy of themselves.
Rawle Alkins
Alkins has had an interesting career at Arizona. Once a top five-star recruit out of college, Alkins took the backseat in his time at college. In his defense, he did play next to some star players like Lauri Markkanen, but non of the less he never really made himself the first option.
However, the skill set he has is still something you would want to bet on. He has a very nice and consistent looking jump shot, which should be refreshing to see for Sixer fans. He also has good size for a two guard, which is something you obviously can’t teach.
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Using a second rounder on him would be more of an old Sixers “process” move but he has all the ability to become a dangerous player in the NBA. If he really becomes an outside threat like it appears he can, getting Alkins would be a steal. And at the very least, if he doesn’t develop that quickly, the G- League is a good place to grow.