2023 NBA Draft Team Recap: Philadelphia 76ers
What a tumultuous offseason it has been for Daryl Morey and the Philadelphia 76ers.
At the epicenter was star guard James Harden and his very public displeasure with Morey and his handling of Harden this summer. As things currently stand - and we know this can change any day - it looks like Harden will be showing up for training camp ready to contribute to a team that is in full win-now mode.
There have been some subtly interesting free agent additions in Patrick Beverly, Kelly Oubre Jr. and Mo Bamba that at least add some depth to the top heavy cap sheet. As for the NBA Draft, the Sixers were still able to add a few interesting names to their roster even in the absence of an actual draft pick.
The most notable undrafted free agent addition was 20-year-old bucket getting guard Terquavion Smith. The North Carolina State product would have potentially been a first-round pick in the 2022 NBA Draft, but returned to school for a sophomore campaign and improved his playmaking but continued to struggle with his scoring efficiency. Even while averaging over 17 points per game for his college career he shot under 40% from the field and just over 35% from beyond the 3-point line.
As mentioned, Smith did improve his playmaking this past season - and averaged over four assists per game in eight games played this summer - but his role will still be more of a combo scoring guard. He has decent height for this archetype of player but could really stand to put out some weight/muscle during his first couple of seasons in the league. Smith still shot under 40% from the field in the eight summer league games but did bump the 3-point percentage up to almost 38% on over eight attempts per game.
It doesn’t seem like there is an immediate path to playing time for the rookie guard, but should there be any long stretches of missed time from any of the 76ers current guard rotation you could see a path to minutes if his scoring prowess is needed and valued.
Also on a two-way contract will be a guard/wing with a little more size and experience in 22-year-old Ricky Council IV out of Arkansas.
Much like Smith, Council IV was really able to score the ball in college - he averaged over 16 points per game in his junior season with the Razorbacks - but has one fatal flaw for a perimeter oriented player, 3-point shooting. Council IV shot just over 30% from beyond the 3-point line for his college career and went a combined 1-of-17 in eight games this summer.
The third and final undrafted free agent for the Sixers is two-way addition is another bucket getter in Arizona big man Azuolas Tubelis.
He is a 6-foot-11 big man out of Lithuania who was just short of averaging 20 and 10 in his junior season for the Wildcats. It was an underwhelming Summer League for Tubelis who played under 50 total minutes but he was still able to land the aforementioned two-way contract.
While Smith, Council IV and Tubelis are unlikely to make any major contributions this season for the 76ers, this is still an impressive collection of rookie talent for an organization without a single draft pick and should make the Delaware Blue Coats and interesting watch this season.
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