May 10, 2025
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Could Oklahoma point guard Jeremiah Fears be the Sixers' eventual first-round pick?
There are two more days until the 2025 NBA Draft Lottery, and in short order we will finally know not just the order of the first 14 picks of next month's draft, but also whether or not the Sixers will have a first-round pick at all. The team will only retain its first-rounder if it falls within the top six, with a 34.0 percent chance of losing the pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
For the final time before the lottery takes place on Monday night in Chicago, let's take examine which players the national experts believe are in play for the Sixers should they keep their pick:
While Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo did not write an entire first-round mock draft this week, they did outline what every lottery team's board should look like if they stick in their pre-lottery position. Based on the boards they outlined for each of the five worst teams in the NBA this season, their ensuing mock would have the Sixers selecting one of the biggest risers in the early part of the process:
"Both Fears and Tre Johnson will be getting looks even higher than this slot -- potentially starting at No. 3, as there is quite a bit of enthusiasm in NBA circles around both prospects' long-term futures. Fears' late-season performances in the SEC and NCAA tournaments highlighted the significant star power and potential he possesses as a primary shot creator who can get paint touches at will, score in a variety of ways and find teammates creatively on the move." [ESPN]
Fears, who will turn 19 years old a week and change before making his NBA debut, has glaring strengths and weaknesses which figure to make him a polarizing prospect as the process accelerates. His youth, advantage creation and foul-drawing are all positives; his lean frame and suspect three-point shooting numbers at Oklahoma are not as encouraging.
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Writer Jonathan Wasserman used a simulated lottery outcome in his mock draft, and it features the Sixers jumping to the No. 3 spot. With Cooper Flagg and Dylan Harper predictably off the board, the pick ends up being Edgecombe, the unfathomably athletic Bahamian prospect with an absurd collection of highlights:
"One-hundredth percentile athleticism, shotmaking production and passing flashes help paint Edgecombe as well-rounded and safe. The flashes of point-of-attack creation and more room to improve as a shooter suggest he has plenty of upside left to hit." [Bleacher Report]
If he lands with the Sixers, the main question surrounding Edgecombe's fit is whether he can be a viable small forward playing alongside a small backcourt of Tyrese Maxey and Jared McCain. But even if the Sixers have their doubts in that respect, if they view Edgecombe as the best prospect on the board after Flagg and Harper they should pull the trigger.
Perhaps the player most frequently mocked to the Sixers since the end of the season, Johnson is a stellar three-point shooter who, like Edgecombe, can definitely pass as a shooting guard (despite being much, much thinner) but even with good length might not be a true wing. J. Kyle Mann makes the case:
"In the event that they stay at five, they might as well swing hard on a player who both fits their current timeline and factors heavily into whatever happens next. If Joel Embiid is available in the near future—which is a massive if—Johnson is a plug-and-play piece that would benefit greatly from the former MVP’s gravitational pull...Johnson has defensive warts that’ll require some maturation to overcome, but he’s the highest-quality movement shooter in the draft." [The Ringer]
Given how prolific of a shooter Johnson is, it is difficult to imagine him not being a productive NBA player. The major questions are his defensive utility and offensive playmaking, but his dynamic scoring punch should give him a pretty reasonable floor in terms of impact.
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