The Philadelphia 76ers have frequently popped up for the last year or so as a team to watch during the summer of 2018. Due to their mix of young talent, tradable assets, and the fact that they’ll have money to spend this summer, Philly is both an appealing destination for free agents and a potential partner for trades.
The Sixers have been mentioned as a destinatoin for all the big names this summer, namely LeBron James and Paul George as free agents and Kawhi Leonard in trade talks. On Friday night, Philly appeared in a new rumbling centered around the top of the NBA Draft.
Former Cavaliers general manager David Griffin appeared on Sirius XM NBA Radio’s draft special and shared a fun piece of information: Philadelphia is working to make a move up the draft boards to get a premier talent.
Interesting nugget in our @SiriusXMNBA NBA Draft special per David Griffin.
“Philly is very much looking to move up to get somebody they think will go in the top 5.”
— Tom Byrne (@1TomByrne) June 15, 2018
Philadelphia certainly has the pieces to move up in the draft. Currently, the team has six picks to play with in 2018. Two of them (Nos. 10 and 26) are in the first round, four of them (Nos. 38, 39, 56, and 60) are in the second.It stands to reason that Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons are untouchable, but beyond them, the Sixers have a bevy of appealing young players on relatively cheap contracts who can get included in a deal, like Dario Saric and Markelle Fultz.
It’s impossible at this juncture to know what players the Sixers would want to grab, although you can possibly rule some guys out by their fits alongside Embiid and Simmons. Plus if this comes to fruition, it stands to reason that it will take a while for it to occur, largely because this makes it sound like they have a specific player in mind and it’d be risky to move up without knowing for sure if they can get their guy.
The Sixers were going to be a fascinating team on draft night because head coach Brett Brown is in charge of basketball operations in the wake of Bryan Colangelo’s resignation. That will especially end up being the case if Griffin’s insight into what the team is contemplating during the home stretch of draft season ends up being true.
