Sixers hint they could trade top-five Draft pick
The new president of basketball operations of the 76ers sent a strong signal Thursday that Philadelphia may look to trade a top-five pick if it ends up with two when the lottery order is determined next week, telling NBA.com, "We'll certainly be open for business."
The comments from Bryan Colangelo that the 76ers are interested in turning at least one first-round choice, and maybe more, into a package than includes an established player instead of adding potential is the strongest sign yet of the policy shift away from building on youth. They could go in that direction, in fact, even without multiple selections in the first five.
Much more will be known after the order for the first 14 picks are set Tuesday night in the drawing in New York. For now, the Sixers know they will have at least one choice in the top four, either their own or Sacramento's as part of a deal last summer that gives Philly the option of flipping spots. For that to happen, the Kings would need to beat the odds and move up from No. 8.
Philadelphia could also have the Lakers' pick, depending on the outcome Tuesday night. If it's a top-three selection, Los Angeles keeps the choice. If it lands at No. 4 or No. 5, the choice is conveyed to the 76ers as part of the three-team trade in February 2015 trade that included the Suns sending the pick they acquired from the Lakers to Philadelphia.
The latter outcome would give the 76ers two spots in the top five, along with 24 (from Miami) and 26 (originally from Oklahoma City). The possibility of four first-round selections, plus current players, gives the 76ers the possibility of nonstop trade options.
"It's hard to put a number or a value on degree of aggressiveness, but we'll certainly be open for business and listening to whatever is there," Colangelo said at the draft combine here, about five weeks after being hired. "I think any time you have certain assets on the table in front of you, you need to determine what your best strategic move is, and some of that is yet to be determined. To what degree we'll be aggressive, it's too early to say."
Except that more will be known Tuesday night.
"I think you should always be a little proactive, just in determining what your best course of action is," Colangelo said. "You don't want to leave anything on the table. If there was an opportunity to do something and you didn't know that or realize it because you didn't make a phone call then that's your fault. But I think we'll explore everything in every regard and that's the good news about having the kind of flexibility and the number of assets that we have.
"It really just comes from the conversation following the lottery results. That's the one thing about the lottery. Once it's completed we'll know exactly what we have. Before anything else happens, that's the first domino that's got to fall. Tuesday's a big day for us in a whole host of ways."
