May 20, 2015
Finally. After last night’s lottery, we now know the complete order of the 2015 NBA Draft and are only a little over a month away from the actual proceedings getting underway in Brooklyn. With that in mind, I figured that we’d get the first (and worst) mock draft of the season out of the way.
Checking our archives, I looked back on Jimmy’s first Eagles mock draft from February and used it as a guide. I believe that’s called #brand #synergy, folks. In any case, I would like to echo his sentiments (and remix them a little bit, football and hoops are different after all) as a mission statement for this initial voyage:
1. I believe the following players would make sense for the Sixers and could realistically fall to them.
2. People love clicking on mock drafts, and I gotta get those page views, son.
A quick note on that first point: I’m going to use the available tools (mock drafts, big boards, etc.) from two sites, ESPN and Draft Express, to project players that realistically could be available at each pick. Alright, without further ado…
It almost seems too easy, right? After the envelopes were opened, literally everyone’s snap judgment was that Karl-Anthony Towns and Jahlil Okafor will go 1-2 in some order and the Sixers will gladly scoop up the sweet-shooting lefty combo guard out of Ohio State.
Fair warning: There are a lot of factors that could throw a wrench into that scenario. Maybe the Timberwolves and Lakers can’t get past Okafor’s poor defensive habits at Duke and Russell moves up to the second pick. Maybe the Sixers aren’t crazy about the way Russell fared against top-notch competition this season. Maybe Sam Hinkie loves either Emmanuel Mudiay or Kristaps Porzingis and would be willing to trade back a few spots to select one of them while picking up some extra goodies in the process.
For now, we’ll stick with “Voodoo.” DX has him going to Philly at 3 and Chad Ford has him going to Philly at 3 (or 10, if he eventually becomes a bust). I wrote about Russell at length in February when he was tearing up the middle portion of the B1G schedule and accidentally deleted the post. I’m a a fan of his game, but there are definitely some concerns, especially when the potential talent pool at the third pick is pretty darn deep.
Let’s accentuate the positives today. Here are Russell’s highlights, which like all highlights, are good highlights:
This year’s Bruno Caboclo, de Paula is young Brazilian with incredible physical tools who is “two years from being two years away.” He’s an amazing physical specimen (7-foot wingspan, gigantic hands, etc.) that exclusively runs the point. Also known as George Lucas (*insert bad Star Wars joke of your choosing*) or Georginho, he has the potential to become an extremely disruptive defender at the point of attack.
George Lucas is going to need a little time to iron out some of the kinks in his game, like his jumper. Know who has all the time in the world? The Sixers.
A local kid that played his high school ball at North Catholic and Academy of the New Church, Christmas enjoyed a breakout senior season. After only averaging 5.8 points and 5.1 rebounds as a junior, he went up to 17.5 and 9.1 as a senior. A player like him that can protect the rim (2.5 blocks per game) and score inside has the makings of a useful big man coming off the bench. Plus, what a great name.
Here’s a guy that I’ve seen play quite a bit. The 20-year-old swingman often found himself on the floor with Dario Saric at Anadolu Efes. A better athlete than Saric, Osman usually acquitted himself quite well from what I saw.
Selecting Osman also carries the bonus of initially leaving him overseas. Over the next few years, I think we’re going to see Sam Hinkie make a ton of use of the draft-and-stash option in Europe with his plethora of second-round picks. If players like Osman develop into surefire NBA rotation guys, they’ll come over in a few years. If not, no harm, no foul.
The Sixers reportedly interviewed him at the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament and he fits the Jordan McRae mold of a prolific college scorer taken late in the second round.
Because it’s late and I’m out of ideas for this post. Plus, there's no way Hinkie keeps all of these picks. Now that I think about it, all of these second-rounders will be traded on draft night for more and more second-rounders. Oh well, already done!
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann
