Simmons was the biggest name to skip last week’s NBA Draft combine in Chicago.
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While the lottery gives all teams who failed to make the playoffs a shot at landing a top three pick, it is heavily favoured towards the poorest performing teams of the past regular season. Most consider Duke’s Brandon Ingram and LSU’s Ben Simmons the top two players in the draft in some order before a major (perceived) talent drop-off, meaning the Lakers seem likely to select whichever of the two players Philadelphia doesn’t choose first overall. None of those picks, however, will get more attention than Boston’s first pick – by way of Brooklyn – which we now know will be the No. 3 overall selection.
Los Angeles Lakers – Tuesday night could have been an awkward one for Lakers’ general manager Mitch Kupchak had his team fallen out of the top three and been forced to convey their 2016 first round pick to Philadelphia.
The 76ers won the National Basketball Association draft lottery, giving them the No. 1 selection in June. The Celtics wanted to package the pick in a trade for a superstar like Jimmy Butler or DeMarcus Cousins but they would need a top two pick to pull that off. Since it stuck at no.3, Jahlil Okafor is probably the best return they can get. They’ve been a bit secretive with the medical side of things with Embiid, simply because the media could take some of the information and have a field day. I think there needs to be a blend of young talent and veterans on your roster, there needs to be a balance. In what was a rare occurrence, none of the 14 lottery teams moved up in the draft – unlike a year ago when Sixers dropped to third despite finishing with the worst record in the league.
Dario Saric, who the Sixers acquired in the 2014 draft, has spent the last two seasons playing overseas and is expected to join Philadelphia this summer.
What the Sixers do with the pick remains to be seen.
Simmons was long viewed as the consensus No. 1 choice, but Ingram has caught up and even passed him in the eyes of many. But I think they’ll lean toward Simmons … But as a result of those hardships the franchise now has a stout stable of young players that includes Julius Randle, Jordan Clarkson, D’Angelo Russell, Larry Nance Jr. and either Simmons or Ingram. I’ve known his family since the late ’80s.
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But as the lottery played out, the Kings stayed put at No. 8 and the Sixers got the No. 1 pick, so no swap took place.
