National Basketball Association

Taking a look at the Philadelphia Sixers' latest horde

Published Jun. 29, 2015 11:29 a.m. ET

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By Miles Wray

For the second consecutive year, the Philadelphia 76ers entered the draft with a high lottery pick (No. 3 in both seasons) and a truckload of second-round picks. In 2014, the 76ers had a second lottery pick and five second-round picks, giving them seven in total. But, after four trades on the night of that draft, the 76ers came away with six players in total, plus a future first-round pick: Joel Embiid (No. 3 overall), Dario Saric (No. 12), K.J. McDaniels (No. 32), Jeremi Grant (No. 39), Vasilije Micic (No. 52), and Jordan McRae (No. 58).

The Sixers sat at No. 3 this year and again had five second-round picks. But their night looked really different: at No. 3, instead of drafting an injured big man (Embiid), or a player who just signed a contract to stay in Europe for two more years (Saric), Philadelphia selected Jahlil Okafor, projected as a stable pick who figures to contribute right away. Also: the Sixers made just one trade, sending Willy Hernangomez (selected 35th) to the New York Knicks in exchange for two second-rounders.

So, in addition to Okafor, the Sixers added four more players. On the Sixers’ crowded roster, there isn’t room for everybody (they could fill up a whole team just with picks from 2014 and 2015 if they wanted to), so it feels inevitable that some of these guys will end up being stashed abroad, as happened last year to Micic (who played in Germany) and McRae (Australia, D-League).

Let's take a look at these four second-round picks, two of whom are international players, to see what the Sixers were thinking with their draft strategy:

Richaun Holmes

No. 37, Bowling Green

Already, Holmes has had a dramatically different career path than the vast majority of NBA draft prospects: he received no D-I scholarship offers out of high school. Holmes transferred to Bowling Green after a year in community college, becoming the leading scorer on the team in just his second season there. Over his three years at Bowling Green, Holmes went from having no three-point shot to making 18-of-43 (41.9 percent) last season. Holmes’ unique ability to transform and better himself as a player had to be appealing to the Sixers, perhaps the team most reliant on player development in league history.

The wonderful Philadelphia-based basketball writer Derek Bodner had this to say about Holmes in his scouting report for DraftExpress, coincidentally two months before Holmes would be selected by the team:

His length, explosiveness, and quickness off his feet, combined with good instincts and timing as a shot blocker, allowed Holmes to block 3.8 blocks per 40 minutes pace adjusted, tied for the 4th best figure in our database and just below the 4.2 per 40 minutes pace adjusted that Karl-Anthony Towns posted. The level of competition in the MAC, combined with a weak non-conference schedule, has to be factored in here, but Holmes has the physical tools, effort level, and instincts to make an impact on this side of the court.

Arturas Gudaitis

No. 47, Zalgiris (Lithuania)

Evidently the Sixers are definitely not concerned about having too many players at one position: more than 40 picks after they added Okafor to their in-place center rotation of Embiid and Nerlens Noel, the Sixers took Gudaitis, a center from a more traditional mold. While Sixers blog Liberty Ballers was not very excited about the pick, it should be noted that DraftExpress had Gudaitis going to Sixers in their final mock draft, but at pick No. 37. At ESPN, Fran Fraschilla had Guaitis ranked 10th among all international players in this year’s draft. Fraschilla wrote (subscription required):

The 6-10 Gudaitis is an Aron Baynes-type big man who had a very solid season in Lithuania’s LKL. He is a big, physical guy who screens hard, posts hard and plays hard. [...] The downside is that he is a below-average NBA athlete and runner and plays exclusively below the rim.

While nobody gets excited about Baynes or other backup centers like him, it should be noted that Baynes was one of the many players who made the San Antonio Spurs roster look so incredibly deep.

News has already come out that Gudaitis won’t spend next season in Philadelphia.

Luka Mitrovic

No. 60, Mega Crvena Zvezda (Serbia)

Interestingly, DraftExpress did not even include Mitrovic in their mock draft, but Fraschilla ranked the Serbian stretch 4 as the ninth-best international prospect in the draft, just ahead of Gudaitis. Fraschilla’s assessment:

While he is a limited athlete who plays below the rim and has average mobility, he plays with good toughness and his effort level is high. Because it is unlikely that he can play small forward in the NBA, he has to carve out a spot as a shooting big man. That will take improvement.

That the Sixers keep on selecting high-motor players in the second round feels like no accident. As a team, the Sixers would prefer to take a second-round gamble only on players who they know will work to maximize their small—compared to a first-rounder, that is—athletic gifts.

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