Even if your mother always warned you not to get ahead of yourself, let’s get ahead of ourselves anyway. After all, Coach Klein did teach Bobby Boucher in The Waterboy that “what Mama don’t know, won’t hurt her.”
Classic movies from 1998 aside, the 76ers are reportedly close to trading for the Celtics‘ No. 1 overall pick in next week’s draft. If completed, Philly would very likely select Markelle Fultz, the tantalizing University of Washington freshman with major upside. Can you imagine Fultz on the court with Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons? The Sixers could boast three of the most promising young players in the NBA. Fultz is 19 years old, Simmons is 20, and Embiid is 23. Lest we forget, Philly also possesses promising 23-year-olds Dario Saric and Richaun Holmes on its youthful roster.
If Fultz’s workout with the Sixers (scheduled for 6 PM Eastern Time Saturday night) goes as well as expected, the trade could soon be finalized, and 76ers fans could witness their fantasy coming true of a Fultz-Simmons-Embiid big (and young) three. Today’s discussion question is: assuming the trade is completed and the Sixers wind up with Fultz, how special can this trio be together? What kind of obstacles do you expect them to face? If Brett Brown still elects to play Simmons at point guard, would that mostly help or hurt Fultz’s development on the court?
We’d love to hear your insight in the comment section.
Don’t forget about a strong fourth player in saric
Embiid could be injured enough it may not work out very well. Interesting team to watch for the future though.
The process took long enough
Yep and I could take 2-3 years to get to 50 wins.
The main obstacle for this group of young, extremely talented players is keeping them on the court. Embiid is clearly an All-NBA talent when healthy.
Health is going to be the biggest factor… for anyone they get. If they wind up with Fultz, Jackson, Ball, or Fox, it boils down to Simmons and Embiid staying healthy. Simmons shouldn’t be too much of a question mark, but Embiid has been plagued his entire career. He probably the most of anyone is going to have to stay healthy.
They absolutely need Fultz because Simmons wont be a go to scorer, and Embiid will be more of a defensive anchor barring injury who will get you 18-30 ppg nightly. Fultz is the most well rounded offensive player in the draft and the Sixers severely need offense and shooting so they should steer away from Ball, and Jackson who IMO are terrible fits.
Simmons is an injury risk, too. Jones fractures tend to repeat themselves. Then again, it’s the NBA and anyone can get hurt. It’ll finally be fun to watch this team play basketball instead of just watching a train wreck.
Do it Danny. Let LBJ get OTH/complacent….get U a big in next two drafts…the C’s are returning to the stage.
It’s a good fit. This will become a very dangerous team.
Also if Furkan Korkmaz can continue to develop he can be a really nice piece off the bench when he comes over. Manu esque potential.
They have played a COMBINED 31 games at the NBA level. They are not a BIG three, they are just three. Embiid is one injury away from being Greg Oden 2.0. Simmons hasn’t proven that he is not the second coming of Evan Turner yet. Fultz just led a college team to a 9-22 record. That’s not exactly a “Big Three” on par with James/Wade/Bosh or Garnett/Pierce/Allen.
Dude why do you have to type all this negative garbage?
Because I don’t live in fantasy land. You can pretend they are all Hall of Famers if you want, but in reality that is what they are SO FAR.
Embiid just averaged 20, Simmons will be Special, and so would Fultz.
Cool. So what are the lotto numbers for tomorrow since you can so accurately see the future?
Lmaoo
Dionis he is absolutely right. I can’t believe you want people to write only positive remarks. You must be new to the internet.
Just saying lets hope the best for Philly, they’ve been through enough losing and could blow up next season. Fultz is the most complete guard I have seen since Harden. This dude is like Harden and Westbrook in one.
Greg Oden Just pure sucked on ice dude, Embiid would’ve made All NBA possibly this season
Woulda, coulda, shoulda. Greg Oden did not suck, he was just hurt a lot.
Kind of weird how they don’t mention saric, but Simmons still hasn’t even played a game and Embiid can’t stay healthy for half of a season.
Trust The Process
people need to stop sleeping on Saric like he’s gonna be some kind of throw in to a championship team. He’ll be one the 4 pillars of this team going forward.
The problem I’d have with this from a philly perspective is that you can still get a really good player this year, at a position of need, and use 1-2 of your 2 round picks on fits, the other on stash guys. Improve next year, and have those picks to either add to your core or trade for an actual veteran player to go with your young guys and try to compete. So wasting an asset matters. Fultz is obviously a great fit. I’m just saying I don’t know if it’s worth giving up what they gave up for Fultz over Fox/Jackson/Ball/Isaac plus whatever they could getll with the pick that goes out
But at this point, this is what they did, and that’s the topic, so obviously that’s a really good trio, but they desperately need shooters around them, and guys that can be 2 way wing players. They have Embiid, but they’re going to need to see some improvement on the defensive end from both Fultz and Simmons, especially at the 1 and 4 spots, if that’s where both play. Maybe Fultz plays the 2.
Remember that they still have either the Lakers or Kings first round pick next year or in 2019, in addition to their own first rounders. Plus they are LOADED with second round picks.
Love the Waterboy reference. Best part of the article.