Is Philly the new hot spot in the NBA's Eastern Conference? | Bob Cooney

If you are a fan, general manager, coach or player in the NBA's Eastern Conference, you really have to wonder if there is any other organization you'd rather be involved with than the 76ers.

Sure, Cleveland still has the world's best player in LeBron James, and any team that he is on is immediately a championship contender. The question there, though, is what team will he be on in the near future. Reports have swirled that he soon might take his talents elsewhere so he could be more competitive against the Golden State Warriors, who are potentially in the infancy of a dynasty-worthy run.

Boston might rival the excitement that is being felt in the Philadelphia area with a bevy of draft picks at the Celtics' disposal in the coming years, and they took Duke's Jayson Tatum at No. 3 and probably will make a huge splash in free agency this summer, and that all comes on the heels of their reaching the conference finals against the Cavaliers this season. President Danny Ainge has the luxury of both looking to build for the present with a good eye and having plenty of assets for the future.

The Sixers continued their rebuild Thursday by taking combo guard Markelle Fultz out of the University of Washington. Team president Bryan Colangelo and coach Brett Brown landed a player who seems a perfect fit with what has already been assembled in big man Joel Embiid, 6-foot-10 guard Ben Simmons, and feisty forward Dario Saric. While experience is now the primary goal for those players, many in the organization are reaching for their sunglasses because the future is that bright.

"It is still way early and, obviously, health is a concern for them, but what the Sixers have done and the possibilities that are before them are intriguing," an NBA executive said.

[Markelle Fultz proved his mettle at famed DeMatha High School.]

The biggest move in the East on draft night was the trade between the Chicago Bulls and Minnesota Timberwolves, as the Timberwolves acquired star swingman Jimmy Butler. In return, Chicago got guards Zach LaVine and Kris Dunn, along with seventh pick Lauri Markkanen, a big-man shooter out of Arizona.

The Bulls, who were very close to taking out the Celtics in the playoffs this past season before guard Rajon Rondo was sidelined by injury, are now in flux as they teeter between rebuild and tweaking.

When it comes to other teams in the East, teams the Sixers might be competing with for a spot in the playoffs (dare we say it?), there really wasn't a whole lot done in improving their rosters.

The Orlando Magic and Charlotte Hornets had nice picks in the first round. Orlando chose Florida State forward Jonathan Isaac, though he is probably at least a few years from making any impact in the league. The Hornets saw Kentucky guard Malik Monk fall to them at 11. Monk, probably the draft's best shooter, should form a nice backcourt pairing with Kemba Walker.

But that really is about it when it comes to marginal improvements in the East. Of course, more roster shaking will happen once free agency begins next month, and the Sixers will certainly be active there.

Add to that the intrigue of second-rounders — Latvian center Anzejs Pasecniks, stretch forward Johan Bolden and forward Mathias Lessort — and there are few more enviable organizations in the East than Philadelphia, if any.

[What they're saying about the Sixers picks after Fultz.]

"It's amazing. Sometimes something like this happens and it sets off a schism in the organization or a team doesn't like, perhaps, the direction management or the coaching staff is going," Colangelo said. "But there is a pretty good unity here that everybody is on the same page. Markelle is a likable young man. He's a very good basketball player. Everyone knows what the level of talent is going to mean to us becoming a more competitive team. We are a team on the rise in so many different ways. We're an organization on the rise in so many ways."