All Eyes Are on Sam Hinkie's Philadelphia 76ers Entering the 2015 NBA Draft
What the Philadelphia 76ers lack in playoff hopes, they make up for in draft-day power.
This isn't about the five second-round picks general manager Sam Hinkie has accumulated. No, this is about the Sixers' lone first-rounder, the No. 3 slot in the June 25 prospect pageant.
At first glance, no team is slated to have more of an impact on how the draft unfolds than the Minnesota Timberwolves. They own the No. 1 pick, putting every other team's draft dreams at their mercy.
Yet, at the same time, there's the reality that exists outside such a technicality: It's Hinkie and the Sixers who, more likely than not, will send the biggest shock waves down the draft board.
They are the wild cards—the real wild cards.
Kentucky's Karl-Anthony Towns is the clear-cut No. 1 at this point. Even if the Timberwolves change course, they'll be picking from a three-player pool consisting of Towns, Duke's Jahlil Okafor and Ohio State's D'Angelo Russell.
The Los Angeles Lakers, owners of the No. 2 pick, will choose one of the two remaining players from that group of three. They're pining after a big—Okafor or Towns—and not being subtle about it.
"We're going to look at the bigs and the guards," Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak said, per Bleacher Report's Kevin Ding, "and see if there's a guard there that—despite being just a guard—you don't want to pass on him."
Well, then. Hopefully Okafor likes the idea of wearing gold-yellow.
After the Lakers, there's the Sixers, champions of uncertainty.
For so long, it seemed as if they would simply devour Minnesota's and Los Angeles' leftovers and scoop up the odd man out of Okafor, Russell and Towns (most likely Russell). And that hasn't necessarily changed.
Bleacher Report's Jonathan Wasserman still has the Sixers rolling with Russell in his latest mock draft. If, for some reason, Russell is gone, they still have ample reason to follow standard big-board procedure and select whomever remains between Okafor and Towns.
Sure, the Sixers have a prospect logjam up front. But Joel Embiid has suffered a potentially 2015-16 season-threatening setback on his injured right foot, and the Sixers won't have a hold on the situation for another couple of weeks, per Keith Pompey of Philly.com. Dario Saric's agent also told ESPN.com's Chad Ford the forward isn't expected to join the team next season.
Remove one or both of them from Philly's player pool, and the idea of taking, say, Okafor and figuring out the rest later, when everyone is healthy and stateside, starts to look mighty fine.
Recently, though, a different, board-bending scenario has started gaining traction: The Sixers could take Latvia's Kristaps Porzingis, a 7-footer who has drawn comparisons to a more athletic Dirk Nowitzki and climbed draft boards everywhere, creeping into the top five.
Ford riffed on this possibility in his latest mock for ESPN.com:
"We've been hearing both Mudiay and Russell's name here for months. But over the past few weeks multiple sources around the league suspect that Sam Hinkie may actually be leaning toward Porzingis. He's an odd fit given the Sixers abundance of big men (though news that Joel Embiid's foot hasn't healed may change the fit analysis). But Hinkie has always drafted based on the best player available strategy. He doesn't draft for need. So while the team needs Mudiay or Russell more, if he believes Porzingis is the best player on the board, so be it.
"
Now, Ford himself admits that this could all be predraft smoke meant to mess with other teams, which is nothing if not wholly possible.
After all, this theory picked up steam in large part because Russell, the likely pick, wasn't thought to be enamored with Philadelphia, according to the Los Angeles Times' Brad Turner. But Draft Express' Jonathan Givony has since pumped the brakes on that line of thinking:
This will-they-won't-they-how-could-they business is all part of the Sixers' clout. Hinkie is a closed book...that's also belted shut...and kept in a reinforced steel vault that's 250 feet below the surface and guarded by the cyborg assassins from Terminator.
Anything is possible when he's involved. The Sixers have taken on top-six prospects in each of the last two drafts (Embiid and Nerlens Noel) who didn't appear in a single game during their should-have-been rookie campaigns. They gave up on 2013 Rookie of the Year Michael Carter-Williams not two full seasons into his career.
They amass second-round picks faster than Phil Jackson's copy of The Big Book of Three-Point Shooting collects dust.
There's no pinpointing what the Sixers will do. And because they're so unpredictable, they'll cause a chain reaction, starting with the New York Knicks at No. 4.
Sources told Ford the Knicks are more likely to deal their first-rounder if Okafor, Russell and Towns are all off the board. Assuming the Timberwolves and Lakers go big, the Sixers could prompt Jackson's Knicks to trade out of the No. 4 slot, the results of which would have a trickle-down effect.
First, there's the potential trade itself and what it would mean for the Knicks. If they actually do pull the trigger on something, it'll be a blockbuster—a deal that nets them a high-impact player.
Sean Deveney of Sporting News says the Knicks and Phoenix Suns have talked shop on an Eric Bledsoe deal. That's the type of fortunes-turning package New York needs to justify moving its highest lottery pick since 1985.
In that scenario—or a similar one—the Knicks would be drafting on behalf of their trade partner. (They have to flip the actual player, since, per the Stepian Rule, teams cannot trade consecutive first-round picks.) That partner would then shape which players are available for those waiting outside the top four.
Knowing that most of the teams after the Knicks don't need a center, could Willie Cauley-Stein go from a fringe top-five prospect to dropping outside the top 10? Will other deals be struck in response to the Knicks' deal? Might the Knicks themselves gain a lower-end first-round pick as part of any trade?
The list of questions goes on and on.
On the flip side, Philadelphia can make the surprise pick. If it's not Porzingis, maybe it's Emmanuel Mudiay, who was once considered the top point guard prospect before Russell burst onto the scene.
Making that reach is not out of the realm of possibility. Not in Sixers Land.
As CBS Sports' Sam Vecenie underscored while responding to the Porzingis chatter:
"Under Hinkie, the 76ers have defaulted to the best player in the draft with the highest upside. His goal is to find a superstar, then build around that player. If Hinkie believes Porzingis to be that potential superstar, I don't think he'll really look at the roster and draft for need. He'll take Porzingis, and live with the result.
"
Straying from the expected path doesn't just give the Knicks an incentive to keep their pick; it forces every other team below them to adjust.
If the Sixers take Porzingis, he won't be there at No. 5 for the Orlando Magic. If they select Mudiay, he won't be there at No. 6 for the Sacramento Kings.
And so on and so forth until many of the keyboard wizards see their final draft boards go up in flames by the Sixers' lit-match-toting hands.
None of that means the Sixers' decision at No. 3 will be the draft's piece de resistance. Better players could be selected later. Association-rattling trades could be brokered long after they've been on the clock.
Whatever happens, though, will somehow, someway start with the Sixers.
Situated just behind the Timberwolves and Lakers, they're the draft's first real unknown. And until they make their decision, everyone behind them will wait, fully aware their plans, their preferences, could change in some capacity on the Sixers' whim.
Dan Favale covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter: @danfavale.
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