There’s been plenty of slop out there about what the Sixers might do with the No. 3 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. The good news is nobody actually seems to know.
Another day closer to the 2025 NBA Draft and there’s more slop about what the Sixers could do on draft night.
In ESPN’s most recent top-100 Big Board piece, a blurb about Ace Bailey has an interesting take on his draft stock and how it pertains to the Sixers winning the No. 3 overall pick:
“The possibility that Philadelphia, angling to win more games next season, opts to go a different direction could move him down the board a spot or two, with Charlotte and Utah likely to look hard should he be available — and his upside might become too difficult to pass on.”
You’ll recall a few weeks ago that ESPN suggested the Sixers could trade the No. 3 overall pick (along with Paul George) for 36-year-old Kevin Durant. That report was squashed nearly immediately by several outlets.
Even ESPN’s Brian Windhorst weighed in on the possibilities for the Sixers.
“Some years we expect July 1st to be the big time for offseason activity, I think the [NBA Draft] will be very big this time … Either [pick 2 or 3] I think have a chance to be in play. And I don’t know what’s going to happen with them … Maybe the #Sixers will trade up with the…
— Philly Sixers Galaxy (@sixers_galaxy) May 29, 2025
It seems as though nobody has any idea what the hell Daryl Morey and company intend to do. Whether it’s because the team isn’t fully sure yet or they want everyone to think they don’t know, it’s a good thing for the Sixers.
Morey himself has been steadfast in saying they like where they are at No. 3 and feel great about selecting a player there. There’s been no inside info about which players they could be targeting, but there have been multiple reports corroborating what Morey has said publicly about his comfortability making a pick at three.
The Sixers could simply take a player. If they identify one of Ace Bailey, V.J. Edgecombe, Tre Johnson or Kon Knueppel as their guy, there’s no need to get cute. Just take them. Because those players are so close projection-wise, a trade back could make sense, but trading for an old veteran/out of the first round entirely doesn’t jive at all with what Morey has said. It feels lazy to assume that because Morey has made big trades for stars in the past that he’ll do so again. A trade down feels infinitely more likely than any type of blockbuster for a player.
With Cooper Flagg and Dylan Harper projected to be off the board first, and no consensus player at No. 3, it almost feels like the draft starts at the Sixers’ pick. That’s an advantageous position to be in. If the Sixers have similar grades on all four of the aforementioned players, they could trade down to six and feel comfortable one of their guys will be there. If their range of players goes deeper than that, the Brooklyn Nets have plenty of draft capital while currently sitting at No. 8.
With that said, if the Sixers view these prospects similarly, there’s a decent chance the teams picking behind them might feel the same way and simply stay in their current draft slots. If Morey ultimately doesn’t make a trade, it could be as simple as there was nobody to tango with. Then again, it only takes one team to fall in love with Bailey or Edgecombe and get antsy.
The reality is likely Morey’s plan isn’t fully crystalized — nor should it be. Draft workouts have begun. Teams will fall in and out of love with players. Opinions will change and executives could get anxious. The biggest advantage the Sixers have is that they know every player not named Flagg or Harper should be available to them.
Whether intentional or unintentional, it’s better for the other 29 teams to have no idea what Daryl Morey is going to do.