On the Beat: Front Office Phones Busy Ahead of Draft

PHILADELPHIA – Two days before the draft, Bryan Colangelo’s stance remained the same.  He was still interested in acquiring another high pick. Not only are the 76ers in possession of this year’s top overall selection, they also own numbers 24 and 26, via past trades.  Now, aiming to bring more balance to the Sixers’ roster, Colangelo is open to the possibility of doing a draft day deal (or deals), and those two late first-round picks could end up coming into play.”We’re trying to put value to our players, trying assess how transactions might affect us both short-term and long-term,” Colangelo said Tuesday at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, where LSU forward Ben Simmons worked out privately earlier in the morning. As the draft gets closer and closer, the Sixers front office continues to fact find and kick the tires around about the potential scenarios that could surface Thursday evening. “In terms of packaging 24 and 26 to possibly move up into the middle teens, is there someone there that is going to make a big enough difference that it’s worth giving up two assets for one?,” said Colangelo, who’s preparing for his first draft with the Sixers.  “We’re looking at odds and probability of what a 24th and 26th selection has at succeeding, or becoming a rotation player, or an All-Star success, as opposed to someone who’s not in the league in a couple years.  We’re weighing everything and looking at it through as scientific a lens as possible so that we’re making the right choices.”The Sixers are one of four teams poised to pick three times in Thursday’s first round. Boston will go third (from Brooklyn), 16th (from Dallas), and 23rd (their own); Phoenix will choose fourth (their own), 13th (from Washington), and 28th (from Cleveland); while Denver is positioned seventh (from New York), 15th (from Houston), and 19th (from Portland).  “There’s a lot of activity around draft slotting right now, there’s some jockeying,” Colangelo said.  “I’m sure if those same teams are having conversations with us, they’re having conversations with other teams as well.”Since April 10th, when he was introduced as the Sixers’ President of Basketball Operations, Colangelo has maintained that the franchise will shift its focus towards winning, and sustainable winning, at that.  The two-time NBA Executive of the Year has also been consistent in expressing his desire to obtain more elite level talent through the 2016 draft.  Colangelo was asked Tuesday about landing a second “top ten, top five” selection.”If it becomes available, we’ll certainly do that,” he said.  “I think there is a cutoff at which point it’s probably not productive for us to move.  We’re not going to make a bad deal in terms of overpaying for something in that range.  But I believe something in the top eight or so would be something that would work for us as an organization.  That’s not to say there aren’t other players that might be selected a little bit later or even earlier in that range.  The point being, we’ve kind of identified six or seven players that we would like to see, and we know one of them’s coming our way.”That one player will be whomever the Sixers grab at number one.  Over the past month, whether at the NBA Draft Combine, satellite scouting events, or at PCOM, the Sixers have interviewed and evaluated dozens of prospects, including many of those expected to be taken off the board early in the first round.  In addition to Simmons, the Sixers have had one-on-one meetings and / or workouts with Duke swingman Brandon Ingram, Cal forward Jaylen Brown, Providence point guard Kris Dunn, Oklahoma guard Buddy Hield, and Kentucky guard Jamal Murray.”We’re probably having dialogue, active dialogue, with five, six, seven” teams, Colangelo said, before adding that the Sixers have had “periphery dialogue with probably another 10” squads.Colangelo also noted that present circumstances can help explain why the Sixers’ phones have been busy leading up to the draft. “Given the fact that we’ve got a couple extra picks, there’s some people looking to get into the first round.  That’s made it somewhat natural for us to be on the call list.  We’re looking at other rosters and saying, ‘Boy, we’d love to get that guy.’ So we call and see if we can get creative about a scenario that might play out.”While the Sixers appear to be operating with a proactive, open-minded approach to the draft, Colangelo made it known that the team intends to act wisely. “We will not make a bad deal,” he said.  “We’ll try to make the right deal for the organization.”Whether or not a deal actually comes to fruition Thursday, Colangelo figures to be on the lookout.