Sam Hinkie’s “Trust the Process” movement finally paid off for Philadelphia Tuesday night when it was announced that the Sixers had won the NBA Draft Lottery. Unfortunately, Hinkie won’t be around to see it all go down. Hinkie resigned his role as general manager more than a month ago, leaving his ‘tanking’ approach to new GM Bryan Colangelo. Philadelphia had the best odds to win the lottery going in but that hasn’t been a good thing in years’ past. However, this year the draft order went exactly as formed for the first time in history. It seems like forever now since the Sixers started tanking even though it’s only been for the past few seasons. Philadelphia has had four lottery picks of their own in the last three seasons and traded for Nerlens Noel in 2013.
Up to this point, however, the Sixers haven’t been able to grab the number one spot, selecting no higher than third during that time. Last season, Philadelphia selected Jahlil Okafor, who was a nice addition to the roster, but a far cry from the eventual rookie of the year, Karl-Anthony Towns, who
the Minnesota Timberwolves selected number one overall. In the 2014 draft, Philly selected Joel Embiid with the number three pick. However, because of a broken bone in his foot and consistent setbacks, Embiid has still not seen the court in his NBA career. In fact, both of the Sixers lottery selections in 2014 have yet to start their careers in the NBA. Philadelphia initially drafted Elfrid Payton with the 10th overall pick but traded him minutes later in a deal to Orlando in exchange for Dario Saric and picks. Saric, a Croatian native, is still playing overseas at the moment.
The fact that some teams are willing to deliberately throw away seasons for a chance at the number one pick the next season degrades the sport immensely and exploits the obvious flaws in the system. Last week, our own Geoff Lambert published an interesting piece on how the NBA could fix the draft lottery to help prevent teams from deliberately tanking. In it, Geoff mentions a “grace period” that would prevent teams who do win the lottery to be ineligible for the next three years to claim the top spot. For what the Sixers have pulled the last few seasons, I’d make an exception and declare them ineligible for the next thirty-three years. The NBA Draft Lottery has been suspect since its’ inception in 1985 when the Knicks drafted Patrick Ewing. Changes surely need to be made, but in the meantime, Philly finally gets what they’ve wanted all along. Now they need to finally stop tanking and start winning some games.
The Sixers will have their choice so to speak between LSU’s Ben Simmons or Duke’s Brandon Ingram. As of now, it looks like Philadelphia is leaning towards Simmons. He’s evaluated as a better passer, in a more point forward role, and rebounder than Ingram whereas Ingram is a much better shooter and defender. Others will argue that Ingram is the wiser choice. I could personally care less who they take as long as that player helps get the Sixers out of the lottery altogether.
In a sense, the Lakers have a more luxurious pick at number two. They would be happy with either player and can simply take whoever the Sixers don’t select. The Lakers are just happy that they didn’t fall outside of the top 3, which would’ve meant their pick would have gone to Philadelphia as well. They could make things interesting this off-season and try to trade the pick, but because they were able to get in the top 2 my guess is they keep it. This will be the second consecutive year where the Lakers pick number two overall. It’s still weird to not only see the Lakers in the lottery, but this high as well. With a potential star in Simmons or Ingram and a large amount of cap room for free agency, the Lakers could return to their glory days very shortly.
A team that could be more willing to trade their pick are the Boston Celtics. The Celtics owned the rights to the Brooklyn Nets pick this year and will select third overall. The pick is just one of eight selections Boston has this season, including three in the first round. With so many picks to begin with, Boston may try to swing the third pick for a more proven veteran in the league. Unfortunately for Boston, the field drops significantly after Simmons and Ingram so a deal could become more difficult to pull off. Still, the third pick is a great asset to have and teams could look to move up to take someone like Dragan Bender or Buddy Hield. General manager Danny Ainge will have the opportunity to work his magic.
Like I said, the lottery has been suspect since its’ inception and this year was no different. The fact that the draft order remained intact for the first time ever without even the top 3 changing positions raises some eyebrows. This will be the first time that the Sixers select first overall since they drafted Allen Iverson in
1996, which just so happens to be the 20th anniversary of his selection. Oh the irony. I’m sure the NBA is going to love putting that together. Also, the fact that the Lakers were not only able to keep their pick but fall into the top 2, securing them either Simmons or Ingram, doesn’t appear as a coincidence either. Of course, conspiracy theories would have arisen in any way the draft order fell. Imagine if the Lakers and the Celtics, the two most winningest teams in NBA history, landed with the top 2 picks. Conspiracy theorists would have had a field day with that one.
However, the NBA could do more to improve their image. They could adopt a strategy similar to what Geoff has proposed or increase the odds for teams that just missed the playoffs. Another idea is to simply show the selections as they’re made to the public. The whole secret room and Illuminati approach to the whole thing only invites more skepticism. Why not show it all go down? Maybe even select all 14 picks instead of just 3. Just about anything would be better than the current system.
The good news is that commissioner Adam Silver seems more inclined to improve the game than David Stern ever did. Silver needs to find a solution to the refereeing more than anything else at the moment but, hopefully, a draft change is in his future. For now, the city of Philadelphia gets to celebrate for the first time in a long time. I’m happy for the fans because it’s been hard times for them and I’m not talking just basketball. I don’t share that happiness for the team, however, as I don’t agree with the approach of how they got there. Still, what’s done is done. So congratulations Philly! Now start winning some games and make it another twenty years minimum before you even sniff at the first pick.
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