The NBA draft is around 3 weeks away and teams across the league, including the Sixers, will be looking at every little detail as they get ready to sit and draft the next generation of NBA players. This year’s draft will be interesting, given it’ll take place during the COVID pandemic, and whether that hurts or elevates teams’ choices and methods will be determined in the future.
A new era for the Sixers
The Sixers will be heading into the draft with some new faces to the front office after Doc Rivers became their head coach and Daryl Morey will be joining the team as the overseer of basketball operations for the franchise. Whilst they’ll have to sit down and get their draft boards filled quickly, it’ll be interesting to see what the new faces believe the Sixers team needs and it will give us a slight insight into what philosophy Morey and Rivers will be bringing to Philadelphia.
The Sixers currently have 1 1st rounder and 4 2nd rounders and in this piece, I’ll be looking at some 2nd round sleepers that the Sixers could be looking at, depending on what they decide to do with their 4 second-round picks.
Reggie Perry – PF – Miss. State
The Sixers are really struggling at power forward after the Al Horford experiment crashed and burned, turning into one of the worst contracts in basketball and the fact that they don’t really have an alternative at the position. That’s why I think the Sixers will target some power forward prospects in this draft and one they could find in the second round is Reggie Perry from Mississippi State.
Perry stands at 6 foot 9 and weighs in at 249 pounds and played with a real edge during his college career. His main skill set fits a typical center skillset, however, he doesn’t have the size to do so in the NBA, which is why many see him as a project wing player for a team. His offensive game has improved immensely in the past year or so, which definitely helps with his transition to power forward and plays an incredibly unselfish game, which guys like Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons will love.
Whilst its yet to be determined if Perry can adjust perfectly to a wing role for a team, and he may be lacking a 3 point shot that the Sixers are in desperate need of, he’s definitely a prospect I’d take a chance on for the team.
Sam Merrill – SG – Utah State
I think everyone who knows anything about the NBA can recognize the Sixers are in dire need of shooters and bench players, well I think I’ve found the guy for the Sixers in the second round and his name is Sam Merrill.
Merrill, a shooting guard from Utah State, is one of the best shooters in this years draft class. With an incredible 42% three-point shot and an 89.1% free throw shot over the four years he’s spent in Utah, Merrill is the perfect fit for the Sixers. He ended his college career with a total points tally of 2,197 and his senior season averages were 19.7 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.9 assists.
Merrill will be a great pick and roll player on the outside, given teams will have to respect his three-point shot and put pressure on him beyond the arc. Merrill is a pretty impressive passer too, averaging 2 assists for every turnover in college, which is pretty decent for a guy who was the entire offense in Utah.
Now comes the bad bit, he’s a second-round pick for a reason and it’s mainly due to him already being 24 years old so people are questioning his upside in the NBA, that shouldn’t really hurt him for the Sixers though because they need impact players now, especially off the bench. Other downsides Merrill possesses are his lack of vertical game, you’ll hardly ever find him dunking and his footwork on defense can let him down.
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Photo by Boyd Ivey/Icon Sportswire
