Sixers' points to ponder in the draft

WHEN SAM HINKIE took over as president of basketball operations and general manager of the 76ers in May 2013, he inherited a team that was without a head coach (Doug Collins had retired the month before), had finished with a disappointing 34 wins, and seemed to have more years of mediocrity ahead.

He did have a young, All-Star point guard to build around in 23-year-old Jrue Holiday, who was coming off a season in which he averaged 17.7 points and eight assists. But Hinkie's first major move as the lead dog of the Sixers was to deal Holiday on draft night and select Michael Carter-Williams as Holiday's replacement. After earning rookie of the year honors, the turnover-prone and shooting-deficient MCW was dealt to Milwaukee this past season at the trade deadline. That left coach Brett Brown with Ish Smith and Isaiah Canaan to finish out the season as his point guards.

As Brown says, "The NBA is a point-guard league." So with that gigantic hole in the roster, perhaps Hinkie will address it again in Thursday's draft.

The Sixers own the third pick in the first round, and whether they will stay in the slot behind the Minnesota Timberwolves and Los Angeles Lakers is anyone's guess.

Perhaps they will stand pat and the draft will play out as many think, with Karl-Anthony Towns and Jahlil Okafor going with the first two selections.

If that all happens, it would seem the Sixers could fill that point-guard spot with one of two players - Ohio State's D'Angelo Russell or Emmanuel Mudiay, who played this past season in China after originally committing to coach Larry Brown at Southern Methodist University.

Both are big. Russell goes 6-5, 193 pounds and has a wing span of 6-10. Mudiay is also 6-5 and weighs 200. Both are just 19. Russell is the better shooter and Mudiay is a bulldog of an offensive and defensive player who can get to the rim really well and is terrific at drawing contact while maintaining good body position to get off a shot.

Russell is a native of Louisville, Ky., so Louisville coach Rick Pitino knows a bit about him. Pitino was Brett Brown's coach at Boston University, and one of the first calls Brown made after finding out the Sixers had the third pick was to Pitino.

"We wanted him badly, but he didn't think he could start with us because of Wayne Blackshear and Terry Rozier," Pitino said. "He obviously would have played a lot, with a chance to compete for a starting spot, but there are no guarantees. He knew he was guaranteed a starting spot at Ohio State."

Russell took full advantage, averaging 19.3 points, 5.7 boards and five assists. Even more impressive was that Ohio State's offensive efficiency ranked 128th the year before Russell arrived; in his lone season for Thad Matta, the Buckeyes' efficiency ranked 28th.

"He has great basketball skills," Pitino said of Russell, who scored 17 points and had six each of rebounds and assists in a 64-55 Louisville win last season. "When you watch D'Angelo Russell play, he'll make some passes that are Magic Johnson-like. It doesn't take too long for you to say he really understands how to play the game. He sees the floor, he's great on the break, he gets to the foul line. There's so many great things that he does that it's fun to watch him.

"I personally think he's a 'two' guard, but he has the ability to play point. I wouldn't want a 6-1 point guard dogging him the entire game. He definitely can play the point, no question about it. He's a pretty good defensive player. He's got quick hands, he moves his feet well."

Russell's college career didn't end on the best of notes as he shot just 3-for-19 against a strong Arizona team in the NCAA Tournament in a 73-58 loss, finishing with just nine points.

Mudiay's game, with his relentless attitude at both ends of the floor, has been compared to Oklahoma City's Russell Westbrook and Washington's John Wall, which is obviously at the high end of flattery. His decision to play with the Guongdong Southern Tigers in the Chinese Basketball Association was a bit surprising after he failed to qualify academically to play in college. The fact that he could only play 12 games in China due to an ankle injury has heightened the mystery surrounding Mudiay.

After playing just nine games, Mudiay returned to the court in the playoffs and in his first game back he had 24 points and eight rebounds. It is very unusual for a young player to flourish in the Chinese league, which makes the numbers posted by Mudiay (18 points, 6.3 rebounds, 5.9 assists) more relevant. He turned the ball over 3.3 times a game and also struggled from the foul line, hitting just 57 percent, which leads to the biggest concern about him - his shooting.

"He reminds me a little of John Wall when he got into the league," said Larry Brown. "I didn't think he was a true point and he's done an amazing job about getting better with decisions and his shooting. Both are big rebounders. John might be a little bit more explosive. Emmanuel's greatest gift besides being a competitor is he makes others better. He has a great feel and sees the court. Things you can't teach. He has great size and is athletic. A true point guard.

"I first got to see him in his junior year in high school and I thought that in his senior year he could start for half the teams in the NBA. Point guard is the premier position right now in the NBA. I used to talk to him all the time, remind him when you get to the NBA one night you're going against Russell Westbrook, then Kyrie Irving, a day off, then fly to the West Coast and guard Chris Paul and Damian Lillard and Stephen Curry. It goes on and on. If you're not committed to defend at a high level every night, you're not going to get it done. That's the position.

"Right now, if you don't have a great point guard, it's going to be tough. Now you also need someone who can defend, and he can do that. God gives you the ability to defend but also it's got to be in your DNA. He's so competitive, he doesn't want to go out there and get embarrassed. He'll be willing to work."

Mudiay is probably at his best when he is pushing the ball down the floor, which is something Brett Brown loves his team to do, and, like Russell, Mudiay has the great size that Brown loves in his point guards.

Of his time in China, Mudiay said: "It definitely was a great experience. It was tougher than I thought. It definitely was tougher. Just going up against grown men and the physicality part of it was just ridiculous. The first game I played was against Stephon Marbury. I was getting clotheslined, getting pushed all over and getting no calls. After that I just approached it a different type of way. The second game, I bounced back and had a real good game. I was having good games up until my injury. I stayed out there and trained and rehabbed and was in the weight room a lot.

"I like to be a leader. I'm a determined guy. Whatever the coach needs me to do, whatever the team needs me to do, I'll do. I will try to get the job done as much as I can. Winning is the main thing for me. Pushing the ball, that's my style of play."

If one of these two goes to the Sixers at No. 3 on Thursday, Hinkie will be looking at his third franchise point guard in as many years, though Holiday never played a game here during Hinkie's tenure. Perhaps, yet again, Thursday's draft will introduce Sixers fans to yet another point guard of the future.

Daily News sports writer Dick Jerardi contributed to this story.

Blog: ph.ly/Sixerville