76ers should not worry too much about 'fit' in the NBA draft | Bob Cooney

Are we completely overthinking all of this?

Should it be easier than we are making it?

On June 22, provided they stand pat, the 76ers will have the third pick in a draft that is supposedly strong through the first eight picks, or so, with players who are projected to be ones who will be able to help NBA rosters in a very good way, once their 19-year-old bodies are physically able to do that, probably in about two or three years. There isn't an abundance of shooters among them, which is a deficiency on the Sixers' roster they would love to address.

But there are athletes. There are defenders. There are passers. There are scorers. There are those whose shooting is suspect, and those who lack defensive ability.
Some play best when the ball is in their hands, while others make differences on the floor in other ways.

All are different. Most could be good. Some might be great. How do the Sixers decide?

Maybe it's easier than we all think.

So much has been made of "fit" when it comes to whom the 76ers should select on draft night. If Ben Simmons is going to be the point guard, how can players such as UCLA's Lonzo Ball, Kentucky's De'Aaron Fox or North Carolina State's Dennis Smith play alongside the Sixers' top overall pick from a year ago?
Can the team take a shooting guard such as Kentucky's Malik Monk when he seems undersized at a generously listed 6-4 and with a build seemingly slighter than the 197 pounds labeled? After Fultz, he is the one player who probably wears the "fit" label best.

Is Duke's Jayson Tatum the answer, even though for the 6-8 forward to get his points, it would mean his creating offensive opportunities mostly in isolation mode, a far cry from the ball-moving, three-point shooting, fast-paced offense coach Brett Brown is looking for?

Is Josh Jackson, the do-everything forward from Kentucky with the unorthodox jump shot and the player many think will fall to the Sixers at No. 3, the best fit, once Washington's Markelle Fultz most likely is gobbled up with the first pick?
Fit. It is the hot word of late, when it comes to the names bantered about as to whom the team should choose. But are the Sixers there yet? Are they good enough that they are looking to draft someone who best fits with the stylings of Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons and Dario Saric? Is there no room for a point guard on the team, now that Brown and director of basketball operations Bryan Colangelo have insisted Simmons will be given every opportunity to play that position?

It isn't, or shouldn't be, this complicated. The team won 28 games this past season. Of the big three foundational pieces – Embiid, Simmons and Saric – one has played a total of 31 games in three years, another has played one full season and another hasn't seen an NBA court yet. Logic would suggest it is hard to find a fit for such an unknown and inexperienced assemblage of players.

The Sixers aren't like the teams in the NBA that competed in the playoffs. They boast few – if any – players who can consistently score from three-point range. They don't have a high-scoring guard. Those are the ingredients most successful teams have. Instead, the Sixers will move this rebuild forward with the foundational piece a 7-2, 280-pound center with the athleticism of a point guard. Speaking of the point guard, he'll be a 6-10, 250-pounder with limited shooting ability but the passing ability that could prove elite, not long after he plays his first handful of games.

There is no conformity. The Sixers don't fit a current model of how a team needs to play to succeed in the NBA, and that's doesn't even include whom they may select next month.

Maybe the adage "best player available" applies for the team, should it stay at the No. 3 pick. If you want "fit," that probably will have to be addressed during free agency, during which time the Sixers could be very active.

Embiid and Jahlil Okafor were the most logical picks when they were selected at No. 3 in 2014 and 2015, respectively, with Embiid dropping because of a foot injury and Okafor falling to the Sixers after the Lakers' surprising selection of D'Angelo Russell.

This time, there may not be a so-called logical pick. And that's not a bad thing.

Neither is going with best available.