Philadelphia 76ers NBA Draft picks from last five years: Where are they now?
The last five drafts played a crucial role in building the Philadelphia 76ers’ current roster. Most of those picks left the team, so where are they now?
The Process would not exist without the NBA Draft. For a solid four years, Philadelphia 76ers fans endured awful basketball and countless losses only to see a mere glimmer of hope each time late June rolled around.
The draft was the saving grace of the Process. Without it and Sam Hinkie’s ability to acquire bundles of picks, the 76ers would have been just another bad team. But the draft and the countless scouting reports, mock drafts, and highlight tapes that came with it made the regular season somewhat bearable.
Sixers fans received a few months of optimism every summer after the draft for the past four years: they could see the high lottery pick thrive in action in Summer League play before he either picked up an injury or faced legitimate NBA competition in the regular season.
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The Sixers have traded or released many of their draft picks since they entered the league so they could make room for players who will help the team win now. The team swapped on-court success for countless draft picks, so the 76ers’ draft tree is almost as extensive as the Gregg Popovich coaching tree.
Philly has drafted 26 players since the 2014 draft, and given the fact that teams can only have 15 players on the roster at a time, it’s needless to say that many of those players have spread out around the league and the world. Eight of the 26 selections were draft-and-stash players, and a lot of them still have not made it over to the NBA.
For all the fanfare about Hinkie’s ability to game the system and dominate the draft, merely a small percentage of the Sixers’ selections have grown into legitimate NBA players. Even youngsters like Richaun Holmes and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, who were less hyped than other draft picks but stayed on the roster for a few seasons, found themselves traded this summer because Brett Brown did not think they can contribute to a team vying for a deep playoff run.
That’s not to discredit the leader of the Process: he ended up flipping those extra picks in larger deals or he already had so much young talent on the roster that the late selections were never going to get a realistic shot at making the team.
Considering the majority of the roster is healthy and the team won 52 games last season, there’s not much to complain about in South Philly. So, take a trip down memory lane and find out what’s up with all the draft picks from the Process.