reflections
June 28th, 2008 2008 NBA Draft Grades: Philadelphia 76ers


By: Dustin Chapman

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  • Selected Marreese Speights 16th overall.

Marreese Speights is a very solid pick for Philadelphia at 16, as he has a great deal of potential and fills a hole at the 4-spot. However, there may have been a better player at the same position on the board. Who, you ask? The same player that virtually everybody else passed on, Darrell Arthur. His fit with an up-tempo team like Philly is tremendous, and many outsiders believed that he was the guy at 16 if he was available.

Regardless, Speights can be a player. Questions have been raised regarding his hunger to become a good player, he’s got all the physical tools. Let’s hope he has the mental tools to go with it.

Grade: B

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June 7th, 2008 76ers Looking to Deal?

Jonathan Givoney of DraftExpress.com reports that Ed Stefanski and the gang have been active in trade discussions.

One team that is apparently looking to move up in this draft is Philadelphia, thanks to the plethora of cap space they will enjoy coming July 1st. The Sixers are reportedly realizing that there could be very few quality unrestricted free agents available that they could realistically sign, making their precious cap space essentially useless.

One trade that is making the rounds would involve the Knicks sending Zach Randolph and the rights to the #6 pick to Philadelphia for a smaller contract, such as Reggie Evans, and the rights to the #16 pick—after July 1st (when Philadelphia’s cap space kicks in). New York would move into position to have significant cap space in the summer of 2010 (possibly to make a run at LeBron James) by unloading the 17.3 million dollars owed to Randolph in 2010/11, and would still be able to keep David Lee around.

Philadelphia would fill a big void at power forward with a 20 point per game scorer in Zach Randolph, and possibly pick up one of Jerryd Bayless, O.J. Mayo or Eric Gordon in the process, while only sacrificing the 8-9 million dollars they are expected to have in cap space, which likely wouldn’t get them very far anyway.

That is extremely interesting, but Stefanski needs to sit back and ask himself: is it really worth it? Zach Randolph brings more than just a little baggage, both on and off the court, and certainly is not a player that is going to adjust to a high-tempo system like the 76ers currently have constituted.

That sixth overall pick, however, is certainly an appeasing asset. While you could suggest that Randolph is not worth Philadelphia’s time of day, you could just as easily state that a high pick in this year’s top-heavy draft is something to look at.

With that said, there is a reason Donnie Walsh is willing to part ways with the pick just to build up enough opposing interest to move Randolph.

Givoney makes a terrific point in saying that Philadelphia may only truly be able to enjoy their cap room via trade, as opposed to hitting a home run in the free agent market. Even so, there’s got to be more formidable options out there than Zach Randolph… right?

Time will tell. These next 18 and a half days of pre-draft mode will be very interesting.

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Posted By: Dustin Chapman

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