{"id":34054,"date":"2022-06-02T20:27:26","date_gmt":"2022-06-02T20:27:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/5-potential-sixers-draft-candidates-at-pick-no-23\/"},"modified":"2022-06-02T20:27:26","modified_gmt":"2022-06-02T20:27:26","slug":"5-potential-sixers-draft-candidates-at-pick-no-23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/5-potential-sixers-draft-candidates-at-pick-no-23\/","title":{"rendered":"5 potential Sixers draft candidates at pick No. 23"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Now that the Sixers officially own their first-round pick in the 2022 NBA Draft, we can finally start taking a look at this year’s class and think about who might be a fit (and available) at their spot. Draft fever has been subdued as the Sixers have moved further from the “Process” years, but their picks now are as important as ever, providing them with chances to improve their young talent and fill in the gaps on their roster.<\/p>\n

For today’s exercise, we’re going to do a quick run-through of some guys who look like they might be available around their pick based on reliable mocks. It’s anybody’s guess how the board will shake out – there are plenty of guys every year who the public likes more than NBA teams do – but each of these guys either fills some sort of need, interviewed with the Sixers or presents a unique upside case. In some examples, they check all those boxes.<\/p>\n

(Before we start this, I just want to leave a note that I absolutely adore LSU’s Tari Eason, who will likely be gone by the time the Sixers select at No. 23. In what I can gather from the small amount of time I ‘ ve spent watching him and following the guidance of people who scout much more than I do, he’s basically souped-up Paul Reed. If he shoots well enough to stay on the floor, he’s going to have the ability to wreck teams on defense. The only reason I wanted to mention him is that he seems like a true wild card, an ultra-productive player whose style of play might push him down the board.)<\/p>\n

Kendall Brown, Baylor, Wing<\/h3>\n

Brown may be the best athlete in the entire draft, plays hard, defends well and finishes at a high level at the basket. Lui that sounds like the sort of guy you want on your team, at least if you had confidence he was going to be able to hit threes at the next level.<\/p>\n

The bad news: Brown was below average from deep in his only year at Baylor and shot less than 70 percent from the charity stripe on a paltry 2.2 trips to the line per game. He is also not much of a self-creator, and in the immediate term, that makes him a tricky player to introduce into the Sixers’ ecosystem. You can get around being an iffy shooter with fluidity off the bounce, and vice versa, but it’s hard to get to respectability without one or the other. It’s why Brown finds himself in an uncertain territory as a prospect, being mocked as late as the early second round by a lot of experts after floating around the lottery heading into the season.<\/p>\n

On Philadelphia’s end, there’s still logic to betting on a guy like Brown, who has prototypical tools on the wing. With James Harden expected to handle a lot of the creation duties for the Sixers from the perimeter, a player with good cutting instincts (and excellent finishing ability) like Brown has could easily pile up a few easy baskets per game by learning Harden’s tempo and cadence . His shot quality di lui will go up from all over the floor with the burden of creation taken off of his shoulders, allowing Brown to focus his development specifically on something like corner-three shooting, where we’ve seen players make themselves careers and lots of money next to playmakers like Harden.<\/p>\n

The simplification of his role on offense will allow Brown to really buy and lock in on defense, where he has the potential to be a switchable defender from 1-4 who can play in just about any lineup. The Sixers are in desperate need of players who can add size and athleticism to help them compete with the elite teams in the Eastern Conference, and Brown has no shortage of either. <\/p>\n