Philadelphia 76ers: Ranking first round picks for the past 10 years

14. Zhaire Smith

Despite playing fewer games and having worse stats than Moultrie, Zhaire Smith’s still on the Philadelphia 76ers and has a lot more upside than the Moultrie did. That’s pretty much the only reason why he’s higher this list than the big man.

“Smith has plenty of time and potential to climb up in these rankings in the future.”

The 6-foot-3 guard was prized for head coach Brett Brown’s draft back in 2019 when the head coach was acting as the interim general manager. Smith the 16th pick of the draft, along with a future first round pick, was acquired in a draft-day trade that sent Mikal Bridges, the 10th pick, to the Phoenix Suns.

Smith barely played his rookie year due to him having a broken foot and a severe allergic reaction. Those two things needed a lot of time to rehab from and while he did play a decent amount in the G-League last year, he only played six games for his rookie year. That year he averaged 6.7 points in 18.7 minutes per game, while also shooting 41.2 percent from the field

This season he’s played only one more game than last year with the 76ers but has only averaged 1.1 points in 4.6 minutes, while making 27.3 percent of his shots. The good news is that he’s shown some encouraging signs with Philly’s G-League affiliate, the Delaware Blue Coats. With the Blue Coats this year, he’s averaged 13.5 points, 3.1 rebounds, 2.0 assists, and 0.9 steals, while converting 53.0 percent of his shots from the floor and 37.0 percent fo his 3-pointers.

Smith has plenty of time and potential to climb up in these rankings in the future. He’s a super athlete still learning the game. Judging him as a bust would be premature at this point, however, he needs to make a jump next year if he wants to avoid that title.