Like a 3-0 count with the bases loaded and the winning run on third in the bottom of the ninth, the Philadelphia 76ers know they are going to get a cookie right down the middle of the plate with D’Angelo Russell of Ohio State.

They should swing at that cookie and hit it right out of the ballpark because no pick in Sixers history has ever been more logical or easier to make. Too much overthinking in baseball in that situation usually leads to a bad result, and the same is true in Thursday night’s NBA Draft.

GM Sam Hinkie should take the cue from his head coach, Brett Brown. At the end of the season, Brown was backed up against the wall by a group of Sixers’ beat writers and asked when the team should now focus on significantly improving their win total and Brown did not flinch when he said it begins now. The player most likely to improve that win total now is Russell, particularly when you team his perimeter skills with the interior skills of seven-foot twin towers Joel Embiid and Nerlens Noel. Having three lottery picks in the starting lineup, which the Sixers would in those two and Russell, would immediately make the Sixers competitive. Dario Saric, an effective No. 3 in Europe who stands 6-foot-11, joins the team two years. They are fine in the front court.

There has been some talk that Hinkie will go unconventional again and pick another big European big man in Kristaps Porzingis but he, unlike Russell, is an unpolished project and would fit on the Sixers’ roster like a square peg into a round hole. Porzingis, a 7-foot-1 power forward, played for Baloncesto Sevilla in Spain this past season where he averaged 10.7 points, 4.8 rebounds and just one block. Those are not first-round numbers. If Hinkie is thinking of making that leap, someone should talk him off the ledge between now and Thursday night.

If the Sixers draft Porzingis, look for Brown to start making copies of his resume in the corporate offices right after the draft. Brown wants a team that can win now and Porzingis would be a clear sign that Hinkie does not share his vision. There is no point in continuing to tank to amass future draft picks when the Sixers have two potential lottery picks coming next year in trades with the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat.

That’s why Russell is not only the logical pick, but the one it only takes the Sixers two seconds to make.

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.