E-News Sign Up
RSS Feeds
Print
Share on Facebook
ShareSixers to Pick 13th in 2006 NBA Draft
While 76ers President Billy King did not enter Tuesday’s visit to Secaucus, NJ for the NBA Draft lottery pessimistically, he was realistic about the team's chances of moving into one of the top three spots.
With only a 0.6% chance of landing the No. 1 overall pick, King knew that the odds of moving up from the 13th spot were slim and none. As it turned out, the ping-pong balls did not take any fortuitous bounces and the Sixers wound up where they figured to be all along.
“I knew the odds were long,” King said Tuesday night after the order was revealed. “I probably would have been a lot more emotional the other way if we won, because I would have been shocked. As [NBA Deputy Commissioner] Russ [Granik] was opening it, I was hoping to see New Orleans or something besides the Sixer logo. It was the one time I didn’t want to see our logo.”
“You’re just hoping. You’re just sitting there hoping. I guess it’s almost like on a Saturday or Sunday, when you read the paper and there’s $200 million in the Powerball. You’re just looking at the numbers and hoping.”
While the numbers did not turn out the way King would have liked, he was relieved not to see the Utah Jazz move up in to the top 3 which would have in turn, pushed the Sixers back to the 14th spot. Now that the order is in place, King and his staff are ready to begin preparation for the draft, which will take place June 28 in New York City.
“We were planning on being at 13,” King said. “If you move up to number 1, 2, or 3, that’s easy. So [now] you’ve got to do your work. We’re prepared, and we’ve got workouts scheduled. There will be some guys coming in.”
“The greatest thing about this is now we know the draft order. Now, in the trade discussions that we are having you know exactly where people are picking. Now when agents are trying to get workouts, they can’t say ‘my guy isn’t going to be there.’ Now you can get to work. That’s really the best thing about it.”
The Toronto Raptors were the evening’s big winner, landing the No. 1 pick for the first time in franchise history despite having the league’s fifth-worst record. The Portland Trail Blazers, the league’s worst team, were not as fortunate, as they fell to the No. 4 spot. The Chicago Bulls, who acquired the Knicks' first-round pick in a trade for Eddy Curry, and the Charlotte Bobcats rounded out the top three.
The 13th spot has been lucky for some in recent memory, producing future Hall-of-Famers Karl Malone (1985) and Kobe Bryant (1996) to go along with Clippers guard Corey Maggette (1999) and Nets’ all-star forward Richard Jefferson (2001). Over the past three years, it has yielded a pair of unproven point guards in Marcus Banks and Sebastian Telfair. The Charlotte Bobcats used the 13th pick to select Sean May during last year's draft. The Sixers have held the 13th spot twice in franchise history and used it to select Bud Ogden from Santa Clara in 1969 and Wilbur Trosch from St. Francis. (Pa) in 1960.
While King feels there will be plenty of good players on the board by the time the Sixers are on the clock, he has not ruled out the possibility of moving up.
“We’ve got some guys [in mind], and the staff is confident that we’ll get a good player at 13,” King said. “You never know, we might try to work our way up and get up a little higher.”
“I would love to move up. There’s some guys I would like to try to get. There are some teams we’ve already had discussions with”
In the case that the Sixers don’t trade up, they will be forced to depend on the selections of the 12 teams in front of them and thus, the inexact science of the NBA Draft. The Sixers witnessed a first-hand account of this in 2004 when the Toronto Raptors’ selection of little-known Rafael Araujo allowed them to take Andre Iguodala, the player they coveted all along, with the No. 9 pick.
“The hard thing is when you sit there with the scouts and start going ‘let’s list 13 players that we like,’” King said. “It always stops at 12. If you have the 10th, it always stops at 9. With Andre, we had 8 that we liked. We needed somebody to slip in there before us. We had 8 players that we really liked and beyond that we didn’t. We needed one player to slip in.”
King plans on speaking with executives from other teams in the near future to garner interest in a potential trade for a higher and/or additional pick. As it stands now, the Sixers do not have a second-round pick by virtue of their trade with the Cleveland Cavaliers that involved Lee Nailon.
In addition to adding a rookie in the draft and a player or two through free agency, King plans to maintain a long-range perspective during the off-season. He intends on implementing a new culture in all facets of the organization to kick the team’s losing ways and prevent a third trip to Secaucus in four years.
“I think it is essentially because what I want to do is change the culture,” King said. “I want to change the culture and how we approach everything we do on and off the court. There’s been a culture that’s been permeating probably for the last 3 years, and we’ve got to change it. So that’s really the biggest challenge for me is changing the culture and how we approach things, how we deal with people, how we deal with the media, deal with our fans, deal with the players on the court. I guess it’s an approach I’m looking at almost as if I’m new to the job. How would I want to do it? I’m not looking at it like I’ve had these players, I drafted them I signed them. It’s like, ‘now I am coming in new and how would I want the team done?’”
With only a 0.6% chance of landing the No. 1 overall pick, King knew that the odds of moving up from the 13th spot were slim and none. As it turned out, the ping-pong balls did not take any fortuitous bounces and the Sixers wound up where they figured to be all along.
“I knew the odds were long,” King said Tuesday night after the order was revealed. “I probably would have been a lot more emotional the other way if we won, because I would have been shocked. As [NBA Deputy Commissioner] Russ [Granik] was opening it, I was hoping to see New Orleans or something besides the Sixer logo. It was the one time I didn’t want to see our logo.”
“You’re just hoping. You’re just sitting there hoping. I guess it’s almost like on a Saturday or Sunday, when you read the paper and there’s $200 million in the Powerball. You’re just looking at the numbers and hoping.”
While the numbers did not turn out the way King would have liked, he was relieved not to see the Utah Jazz move up in to the top 3 which would have in turn, pushed the Sixers back to the 14th spot. Now that the order is in place, King and his staff are ready to begin preparation for the draft, which will take place June 28 in New York City.
“We were planning on being at 13,” King said. “If you move up to number 1, 2, or 3, that’s easy. So [now] you’ve got to do your work. We’re prepared, and we’ve got workouts scheduled. There will be some guys coming in.”
“The greatest thing about this is now we know the draft order. Now, in the trade discussions that we are having you know exactly where people are picking. Now when agents are trying to get workouts, they can’t say ‘my guy isn’t going to be there.’ Now you can get to work. That’s really the best thing about it.”
The Toronto Raptors were the evening’s big winner, landing the No. 1 pick for the first time in franchise history despite having the league’s fifth-worst record. The Portland Trail Blazers, the league’s worst team, were not as fortunate, as they fell to the No. 4 spot. The Chicago Bulls, who acquired the Knicks' first-round pick in a trade for Eddy Curry, and the Charlotte Bobcats rounded out the top three.
The 13th spot has been lucky for some in recent memory, producing future Hall-of-Famers Karl Malone (1985) and Kobe Bryant (1996) to go along with Clippers guard Corey Maggette (1999) and Nets’ all-star forward Richard Jefferson (2001). Over the past three years, it has yielded a pair of unproven point guards in Marcus Banks and Sebastian Telfair. The Charlotte Bobcats used the 13th pick to select Sean May during last year's draft. The Sixers have held the 13th spot twice in franchise history and used it to select Bud Ogden from Santa Clara in 1969 and Wilbur Trosch from St. Francis. (Pa) in 1960.
While King feels there will be plenty of good players on the board by the time the Sixers are on the clock, he has not ruled out the possibility of moving up.
“We’ve got some guys [in mind], and the staff is confident that we’ll get a good player at 13,” King said. “You never know, we might try to work our way up and get up a little higher.”
“I would love to move up. There’s some guys I would like to try to get. There are some teams we’ve already had discussions with”
In the case that the Sixers don’t trade up, they will be forced to depend on the selections of the 12 teams in front of them and thus, the inexact science of the NBA Draft. The Sixers witnessed a first-hand account of this in 2004 when the Toronto Raptors’ selection of little-known Rafael Araujo allowed them to take Andre Iguodala, the player they coveted all along, with the No. 9 pick.
“The hard thing is when you sit there with the scouts and start going ‘let’s list 13 players that we like,’” King said. “It always stops at 12. If you have the 10th, it always stops at 9. With Andre, we had 8 that we liked. We needed somebody to slip in there before us. We had 8 players that we really liked and beyond that we didn’t. We needed one player to slip in.”
King plans on speaking with executives from other teams in the near future to garner interest in a potential trade for a higher and/or additional pick. As it stands now, the Sixers do not have a second-round pick by virtue of their trade with the Cleveland Cavaliers that involved Lee Nailon.
In addition to adding a rookie in the draft and a player or two through free agency, King plans to maintain a long-range perspective during the off-season. He intends on implementing a new culture in all facets of the organization to kick the team’s losing ways and prevent a third trip to Secaucus in four years.
“I think it is essentially because what I want to do is change the culture,” King said. “I want to change the culture and how we approach everything we do on and off the court. There’s been a culture that’s been permeating probably for the last 3 years, and we’ve got to change it. So that’s really the biggest challenge for me is changing the culture and how we approach things, how we deal with people, how we deal with the media, deal with our fans, deal with the players on the court. I guess it’s an approach I’m looking at almost as if I’m new to the job. How would I want to do it? I’m not looking at it like I’ve had these players, I drafted them I signed them. It’s like, ‘now I am coming in new and how would I want the team done?’”
