John Smallwood | Despite no luck in lottery, King optimistic

SECAUCUS, N.J. - The location was the same - that place up the Jersey Turnpike that no self-respecting NBA team wants to visit this time of year.

But the circumstances for 76ers president/general manager Billy King at last night's NBA draft lottery couldn't have been more different.

A year ago in Secaucus, with the end of the Allen Iverson era an imminent presumption, King faced more questions about removing A.I. than his team's draft position.

In an extremely out-of-character move, King even went so far as to discuss a rumored trade that had Iverson going to the Atlanta Hawks for a player and their No. 1 pick.

It was also here where King first made the infamous "change the culture" declaration that would define the 2006-07 season.

Last night, however, King was relaxed - not because the Sixers were back in the lottery, but because at least this time, they came with a clear sense of where they are, where they want to go and how to get there.

With Iverson now traded to the Denver Nuggets, the Sixers, for the first time in a decade, will enter an NBA draft without the constraints of worrying about how it will affect Iverson or complement his unique talents.

"As great as Allen was and the great things he did for us, now we're building in a different way," said King, who acquired two additional first-round picks from Denver as part of the trade for Iverson. "When we had Allen, we had to build the team a certain way.

"Now we're building a team around, not a 6-foot point guard or '2' guard. We're building a team more around traditional position players.

"On one hand, that makes it more difficult because the one thing Allen always brought to the table was you knew you get 30 points. Now we have to make sure that we are building a team that is more team-oriented."

The Sixers didn't get any unexpected help from the lottery.

They didn't move up and will select 12th in next month's draft. They also have the 21st pick that belonged to Denver and the 30th pick that came from Dallas by way of the Nuggets.

(As a sidebar to those who wanted the Sixers to tank games, the Memphis Grizzlies, Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks, the three teams most accused of tossing games to better their lottery odds, all dropped out of the top three.

(What are the odds that the three teams that combined for more than 60 percent of the chances would all fall out of the top three? Astronomical, when left purely to chance.)

So unless the Portland Trail Blazers, who moved from sixth to first overall, or the Seattle Sonics, who moved from fifth to second, get stupid and make a trade with the Sixers, neither Ohio State freshman Greg Oden nor Texas freshman Kevin Durant will be calling the Wachovia Center home.

It's not likely the Sixers will get Chinese sensation Yi Jianlian, North Carolina freshman Brandan Wright or Florida junior Al Horford - all considered top-five picks.

But King still said he was more comfortable than he ever has been at a lottery.

"I'm in a much better frame of mind, knowing our team, understanding what we need," King said, "and also having three picks with this draft being this deep."

With the NBA's age limit forcing players to go to college for at least one season, freshman such as Oden, Durant, Wright, Ohio State point guard Mike Conley Jr., and Washington center Spencer Hawes, who might have declared as high school seniors, are eligible.

The Sixers also will benefit from the fact that Horford and his Florida teammates - Joakim Noah and Corey Brewer stayed for their junior seasons, and repeated as NCAA champions.

Realistically, the Sixers might not get the chance to draft any of those players, but the ripple effect is that they will push better players down deeper.

"Every time I watch more film [of prospects], I get more excited," King said. "Usually when you have the 12th pick, you have 11 guys that you like. If you have seven, there are six, but honestly in my mind, there are definitely 12 players that I like.

"I'm confident that we're going to get a good player, so I'm excited. I think if we do draft 12 and 21, those players will help us.

"But as we go through the process, if we find somebody we like who will be further up, we'll do whatever we can to try and find a trade to get that guy."

A year ago, Billy King came to the lottery talking about changing a culture. This time his only concern was improving his team.

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Send e-mail to smallwj@phillynews.com. For recent columns, go to http://go.philly.com/smallwood.