Thursday June 22, 2017 the Sixers established control over their own destiny, Moving to #1 and utilizing the selection that was acquired by exchanging 1st Round selections along with a future 1st Round selection with the Boston Celtics to select 6’-4” Washington Huskies point guard Markelle Fultz.
At Washington, Fultz established himself as a player that can score, pass, rebound, and make three-point shots - sinking 41.3% from beyond the arc in his freshman season.
Later Thursday, General Manager Brian Colangelo again moved up to #25 to select International Center Anzejs Pasecniks, sending either one (1) 2020 first round selection, or two (2) 2021 second round selections - the specifications of the exchange being dependent upon the status of the Sixers process at that point in the future.
The acquisition of Fultz evokes memories of University of Michigan’s Fab-5, implemented at the pro level, when the University managed to bring together what is widely recognized as one of the greatest recruiting classes ever.
Locally known as The Process, the Sixers strategic acquisitions of Top NBA draft picks now should be close to producing the high quality product in terms of wins and losses, on the court that Sixers fans have been impatiently waiting for, and vocally expecting.
The Top-10 selections upon which the franchise’s near-term and long-term future will hinge are listed below in sequential order of season in which the selection was made.
2013 #6 - Nerlens Noel (C) University of Kentucky [exchanged for Dallas SG Justin Anderson]
2014 #3 - Joel Embiid (C) University of Kansas
2015 #3 - Jahlil Okafor (C) Duke University
2016 #1 - Ben Simmons (SF) Louisiana State University
2017 #1 - Markelle Fultz (PG) Washington University
Sixers season ticket sales have skyrocketed since the announcement of the move to #1 and the selection of Markelle Fultz, and fans at the same time have begun to mentally punch playoff tickets for 2017-2018.
The simultaneous infusion of a talent the caliber of Joel Embiid who will be returning from injury, along with two (2) #1 overall selections Ben Simmons and Markelle Fultz into the 2017-2018 lineup - talent that will now be joining the developing young players who were able to gain valuable minutes on the court due to this past season’s injuries - seems almost too good to be true.
It will be coach Brett Brown’s job to convert the player development to date along with the contributions of returning and new players into an on court improvement that results in an inversion of the wins and losses from the team’s 2016-2017 28-54 record.
The successful implementation of the next stage of The Process is going to require players who were #1 option in previous situations to be #2, #3, or #4 options at times.
The successful implementation of the next stage of The Process is going to require that each major contributor display the skill of staying healthy in order to maximize court time.
The successful implementation of the next stage of The Process is going to require that Brett Brown and the Sixers front office successfully manage and optimize the minutes, shots, and skills of each team member.
Fundamentally, the successful implementation of the next stage of The Process requires that the Sixers lineup is in position to take advantage of the matchup problems that it’s unique combination of youth, skills, and size can create for the nearly every competitor.
Sixers Summer League will commence in Utah, July 3, 2017.
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