Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports
When Nerlens Noel picked the number to wear on his back in the NBA, it was No. 5 to signify the number of teams who passed on him in the 2013 draft.
Now Noel is the Philadelphia 76ers’ representative at Tuesday night’s draft lottery. The number he will have to pick is three, because Sixers fans have to be nervous about getting No. 1. Unlike 2013, though, Noel has no choice in the matter and will depend entirely on luck but, if the math works out, Noel will pull out No. 3 in the draft and the Sixers will be better off for it. That’s because Sixers’ GM Sam Hinkie is a value pick guy and he, no doubt, would pick one of the two best available big men— Karl-Anthony Towns or Jahlil Okafor—just for the sheer value.
Nobody knows more than Noel and just about every Sixers fan that the team needs a big-time backcourt guy and not another big man now, and that’s why No. 3 would be perfect. That would force even Hinkie to pick the one guy the Sixers do need, Ohio State guard D’Angelo Russell, and really put an end to all of this tanking that has gone on for the past two seasons.
With Russell, the Sixers will have some star power to go along with a pair of front-court twin towers, 6-11 Noel and 7-foot Joel Embiid. In a year, 6-11 Dario Saric, one of the best young players in Europe, joins the frontcourt crew. The Sixers are more than fine there. They need to get fine in the backcourt and the sooner the better.
The Sixers have the third-best odds at 15.6% of landing the first-overall selection in this year’s NBA draft, while also possessing a 17.2% chance of landing the Los Angeles Lakers‘ top-five protected pick and a 9.1% shot at the receiving the Miami Heat‘s top-10 protected selection.
In a perfect world, the Sixers getting a 1-6-11 would be a trifecta of unimaginable proportions. In reality, though, it looks like the best they can realistically hope for is No. 3 and, if Noel pulls that out, it could be a blessing in disguise.
Mike Gibson is a writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @papreps , “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.
