#PHILAfirst: On Draft Night, Discipline Dictated Decisions

PHILADELPHIA — As Thursday night’s proceedings unfolded, especially towards the front end of the draft, Bryan Colangelo frequently found himself at various crossroads.  In each instance, however, the 76ers’ President of Basketball Operations weighed similar options. Should he choose a route of aggression, and pull the trigger on potentially high-risk, high-reward trades?  Or, would the franchise be better served in the present by taking a more prudent path?Ultimately, despite heading into the draft with hopes of obtaining a second top 10 selection, Colangelo felt that a disciplined approach was most appropriate.”We didn’t make a deal because we didn’t feel the right deal presented itself,” said Colangelo Thursday evening during a post-draft press conference at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, where the Sixers’ draft headquarters was based. In addition to holding the top overall selection, which was used on LSU forward Ben Simmons, the Sixers also occupied the 24th and 26th spots in the first round, thanks to previous trades orchestrated with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Oklahoma City Thunder, respectively.  With resources that substantial, and a desire to bring greater positional balance to the Sixers’ roster, Colangelo willingly fielded phone calls Thursday from fellow executives around the league Thursday.  He was pitched on packages that involved current Sixers players, and present and future picks.   “The deals that were presented, the assets that were asked for, the players that were asked for, we decided it was not in our best interest,” Colangelo said.  “We didn’t feel like any of those trade scenarios would have put us in a position where we want to be going forward, so we took a patient approach, we passed on a few opportunities where we could have reached.  We still feel like this was the right chain of activity to follow.”  “You sit up there, phones are ringing, deals are being thrown around,” said Brett Brown, describing the scene inside the Sixers’ war room.  “We the recipient of more calls than calls going out.  It was an active phone.”Ultimately, the Sixers hung on to all three draft slots to which they were originally assigned.  For the club’s pair of late first-round choices, Colangelo put to use the intelligence that he and his international scouts gathered overseas. At 24, the Sixers grabbed Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, a 6’7” tall, 205 pound swingman from France.  Turkish shooting guard Furkan Korkmaz, a teammate of Dario Saric, went 26th.   “As we continue to look at how we’re going to put this team together, it’s far from a completed project,” Colangelo said, adding that many of the “numerous” scenarios the Sixers have discussed with other teams are still alive. “This is a work in progress that will continue throughout the summer.”  And somewhat immediately.  Before the week is out, the NBA’s free agency flood gates will open, as teams can begin negotiating with players at 12:01 AM EST on July 1st.  The signing period then formally begins six days later, on July 7th. Whether through trades or signings, the Sixers feel well-prepared to keep momentum going in the months ahead, due in part to insights gleaned from chats with other teams in recent weeks, and, specifically, Thursday night. “I think what I learned, there’s a lot of interest in our players,” said Brown. “I know more now about the value of the team and the roster,” Colangelo said later.With the Sixers the subject of trade rumors that surfaced prior to the draft, Colangelo has considered it important to keep a line of communication open with certain members of the club. “I want to be clear that this is a tough business sometimes,” he said. “I’d like to try and be as honest as possible with some of the players, certainly the agents, discuss some of the trade rumors and speculation on some of those that have been affected by it.  They all know how I feel about them both as people and as players.”For Colangelo, the primary takeaway from his first draft with the Sixers was all about what did happen, not what might have been.”At the end of the day, we can’t be disappointed in anything when you look at the roster and you see Ben Simmons there now.”  Make no mistake, though, Colangelo and the front office are keeping their ears open, and phones close.