It's That Time Sixers Fans Look Forward To All Year: Draft Day
The moment we have all been waiting for is finally here! Neither of the 82 regular season games were more important than today and I would like to congratulate everyone for making it to this point still a Sixers fan. If you went to a game this past year or even watched a couple minutes of a game on your television you deserve today. Let’s just have a little fun and summarize this draft and everything leading up to it in to one, easily understandable word: Bull Shit.
That’s right, in the end, the draft and its “process” is a whole bunch of Bull Shit. Today, the majority of the 60 players who will be drafted have been coddled through the AAU circuit, praised throughout their recruitment process, and critiqued to the end of the earth during their one to two years in college. Trust me, each of these kids knows exactly what they do well and exactly what they do awfully and it’s in their head and it’s in everybody else’s head all the time. In the end, on draft night, everyone has so much shit in their head about what each player does well and does poorly that it really comes down to instinct, promises (EVERY team makes pre-draft deals with players and agents), and guessing.
Earlier in history, getting almost perfectly polished, college coached players who were bound to be great in the NBA was realistic. Maybe that ended in the 80s with Larry and Magic. Kid’s who were destined for stardom made it to stardom. Maybe that ended with LeBron. And yes, kids who were projected to be super-stars, never made it. And THAT has never changed. The only constant in the NBA Draft is that many of the picks, and usually one important pick for one team drafting very early on, will fail miserably and make the organization look stupid. Looking stupid is ever more likely these days as teams continue to draft on “potential.” Unfortunately, that is where we stand right now. Joel Embiid and his foot are somewhere in limbo and the Sixers and Sam Hinkie are in a competitive balancing act with stupid. Do we draft Okafor in case Embiid’s career ends? Do we draft a skinny European with endless “potential” or a PG who could be the next big “star?” Do we trade backwards?
The answer to all of these questions is yes. Yes, Sam. Pick one of these options, be confident about it, and move the fuck on. Because in the end all this rhetoric is just a bunch of bullshit that’s impossible to follow and all of our heads are spinning in a million circles. Nobody in this world can perfectly project that 19 year old D’Angelo Russell will be better than 19 year old Tyus Jones, NCAA Champion. Nobody can perfectly calculate if Kevin Town’s offense will negatively affect your team’s offense more than Jahlil Okafor’s defense can negatively affect your team’s defense. And nobody can say we shouldn’t draft Mario Hezonja, or Kristaps Porzingis because their European and European’s don’t pan out because that just doesn’t make much sense. So I encourage everyone to just sit back, relax, pound a few too many beers and enjoy the last couple minutes of rhetoric we got before all hell breaks loose and we either end up dancing down broad street laughing like school girls because we just drafted D’Angelo Russell, the PG of the future of Philadelphia, or we’re left just as clueless as we already are.
P.S.
Second Round pick options: Olivier Hanlan PG Boston College, Rakeem Christmas C Syracuse , Michael Qualls G Arkansas, Jordan Mickey F LSU, (insert all of Europe here).