Philadelphia 76ers: Elton Brand reveals general draft strategy

It may not have been the best idea, but Philadelphia 76ers general manager recently revealed his general draft strategy entering the 2020 NBA Draft.

The Philadelphia 76ers still have to add some missing pieces to their roster before they become a legit threat to win a title. One of the best ways the Sixers will have to build the rest of their roster around Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons, and Tobias Harris is through the draft. Recently, general manager (GM) Elton Brand revealed what he’s generally looking for in the 2020 NBA Draft in a virtual interview with Serena Winters of NBCSPhilly.

There’s a lot to take away from this interview. I’ve already written about Brand’s optimism regarding Ben Simmons’ recovery. The other major thing in this interview is regarding the draft and Brand’s strategy entering it.

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In regards to who’s Brand’s right-hand man during this process now that Mark Eversly’s the GM of the Chicago Bulls, it appears that Vince Rozman (vice president of scouting) has been leading the pre-draft stuff for the Sixers. Alex Rucker, Ned Cohen, and Sergi Oliva are all other members of the front office that have also stepped up in Eversley’s absence.

Brand also gave insight into how’s he involved during this process. He’s calling players, agents, and even families as a way to help make up for not being able to see them in person. He’s also watching a ton of tap on these players as well. It appears that Brand’s leaving no stone left unturned during this draft process.

More importantly than who’s involved and what Brand’s doing for pre-draft prep is that he mentioned what type of player he’s looking for. Tip of the hat to Winters for transcribing this quote.

"‘”We can have up to five draft picks, as you know, so we always want versatile players, defensive-minded players — there could be some shooting in this draft — so we are just trying to add a lot of talent, and we think this is a deep draft, so I’m looking forward to it and I’m excited about it.”‘"

Considering that Brand took Mattise Thybulle in the previous draft, it shouldn’t be surprising that Brand’s focused on adding another defender. He also made it clear that adding more 3-point shooting would interest him as well. Considering the team lacks a volume 3-point shooter outside of Furkan Korkmaz, this isn’t surprising either.

What was surprising is that Brand seemed to indicate that he was willing to use a lot of those picks, which could be up to five as things stand. Considering that last season he entered the draft with five picks but only left with two, this would be a big turn around.

While it’s great to know this as a fan, this information could be leveraged by another team. The Sixers had to send their first and a high second round pick in order to get a Thybulle from the Boston Celtics. Fans shouldn’t want that to happen again in this upcoming draft.

It’s great that Brand has a solid plan in place for this upcoming draft and hopefully, other teams won’t use that knowledge against the Philadelphia 76ers either.