The Philadelphia 76ers finished the season in a very unenviable position. However, thanks to Lady Luck smiling at them and the basketball gods getting introduced to the concept of compassion, the franchise got good graces during the lottery, ending up with the third overall pick in the highly anticipated 2025 NBA Draft.
This year’s draft class, as everyone already knows, is one teeming with talent. The 76ers, despite their abundance of talent on paper, now stand to obtain an elite young prospect who could very well end up being a franchise cornerstone — which they urgently need due to their vivid win-now design.
However, with someone like Daryl Morey still manning the role of lead decision-maker for the franchise this offseason, the 76ers are basically in play for everything. The longtime executive has made a name for himself dipping his fingers into matters having zero ties to his team, and now that Philly actually has a prized asset to boot, there’s no telling about the degree of agression he could exhibit come June 25.
76ers fans should prepare for trouble on draft night
If we’re betting right now, most people will bet on the 76ers doing nothing more than due diligence on prospective trades and ultimately staying put at No. 3.
Yet that is far from a certainty. Philly’s brass is operating under a longstanding win-now edict, and given the team’s waning championship window, it is not out of the realm of possibility for the front office to get lured into a trade to bolster their present and improve their winning cause for next season, especially with how wide-open the league has looked.
The 76ers can, say, package their pick and a salary filler to move down in the draft or snag an upper-echelon star. That could catapult them back to contention in 2025-26, but again, any winning cause for this team hinges on so many factors that any team would remain dicey, all things considered.
If Philadelphia gets its hands on a talented player via trade, the 76ers could still fall short of their goal. After all, Joel Embiid is a massive question mark even at this juncture. And without him, the team has no shot at having a fair shake in the title race.
Perhaps, to err on the side of caution, Philadelphia 76ers fans should just prepare for the possibility of getting disappointed on draft night, not because the team did not make a good pick but because it went against the grain and pulled off another shortsighted gamble.