Serving it up: Sixers settle in (2007 NBA Draft)
Rumors were flying and the Sixers put their best offers on the table. The rumors that the Sixers will move up as high as six didn’t pan out. My greatest fear is that the pick would turn out to be Yi Jianlian never materialized.
Top ten: One was Oden, as reports are confirming. Durant was the second pick. The Hawks and the Grizzlies stayed put and took Horford and Conley Jr. off the board. Danny Ainge was in the power position at five. He took Jeff Green only to shake it up by trading him to Seattle for Ray Allen. Yi Jianlian broke up the Green/Brewer debate and landed with the Bucks at six. Brandan Wright’s stock dropped and Michael Jordan took him at eight. But getting back to Yi, the Sixers really liked him and Milwaukee seems like a good candidate to trade down, but they decided to stick with the Chinese big man. They don’t have the team to surround him with the right chemistry. That’s a curious one.
Going in, there’s a lot of pressure on Billy King. He has to make good on the picks they received for Allen Iverson. I don’t know if Billy King can afford to be patient because the fans are certainly on edge. This draft could be a make-or-break deal for several GMs in the league and BK is certainly one of them.
UPDATE: Yi went at 6, but no trade was announced. Hold your breath! What? Thaddeus Young at 12 to Philly? The guy doesn’t play defense! Billy King needs to be fired now. He’s trying to one up Isiah Thomas. He might have been there at 21. I thought he would slide. Now, Thornton is sliding. This is crazy! It’s still better than trading up for Yi…
NEXT PICK: Billy King ignores Byars and McRoberts to take Daequan Cook, then trades him with cash to Miami for Jason Smith (the 20th pick). Smith is a good alternative to missing out on Spencer Hawes, but he must learn to stay out of foul trouble and take care of the basketball. He’s got a lot of upside. So, hope you’re excited about another big man with upside! Smith has more of a banger mentality than Sam Dalembert or Steven Hunter. I like this pick.
LAST PICK OF THE FIRST ROUND: The Sixers ended a bizarre first round by selecting the point guard of the future. Petteri Koponen was a good pick with question marks about Louis Williams and Andre Miller entering a contract year. However, the Sixers didn’t want three guaranteed contracts. Derrick Byars and Josh McRoberts drop into the second round and the Sixers traded Koponen to the Blazers for the 42nd pick.
SECOND ROUND PICKs: McRoberts went one pick ahead of the Sixers 38th pick and they picked Kyrylo Fesenko. Fesenko can develop in Europe or come over to help right away. The Sixers end up trading him to Utah for future draft considerations and the 55th pick - Herbert Hill from Providence. At 42, the Sixers landed a guy who will help immediately - Derrick Byars. He fell all the way into the middle of the second round. Now, what do the Sixers do with Thaddeus Young, Rodney Carney, Derrick Byars, Kyle Korver, and Andre Iguodala? That’s a lot of guys for the wing. Byars is the sleeper of the second round.
Passion and Pride was live with reaction and analysis as the Sixers’ correspondent on ESPN’s True Hoop. Also, check out the live blog on NBA Draft University. As predicted on the pre-draft podcast with NBADU colleagues Sam Panayotovich and Paul Perdichizzi, it turned out to be a total crapshoot. Check out Passion and Pride for the Sixers’ draft grade and be sure to check out MVN.com/nba for analysis from around the league. It’s been real.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, June 28th, 2007 at 1:34 pm and is filed under True Hoop, NBA Draft University, Kyrylo Fesenko, Herbert Hill, Daequan Cook, Billy King, Andre Miller, Kyle Korver, Steven Hunter, Sam Dalembert, Father Knickerbocker, Petteri Koponen, Josh McRoberts, Allen Iverson, Yi Jianlian, Jason Smith, New York Knicks, Boston Celtics, Spencer Hawes, Rodney Stuckey, Derrick Byars, Thaddeus Young, Al Thornton, 2007 NBA Draft, Sixers.
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21 Responses to “Serving it up: Sixers settle in (2007 NBA Draft)”
June 28th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
Hey are you going to be at the Sixer’s Draft party or just watching it on TV?
(please note, that interview with Noah at truehoop soften me on him. Maybe the sixers do need somebody like him…)
June 28th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
I’ll be in a bunker in a hidden location. I’m working for too many people to be in one place. As long as you understand Noah to be the complimentary piece in the middle, you’ll be alright. He’s by no means a star.
June 28th, 2007 at 3:38 pm
Where are you hearing that the Sixers like Yi better than Jeff Green? And what is the realistic chance that they pull off the trade with Milwaukee. If the trade is Miller + 12 for 6, then whose salary do we have to take back to make that trade work under the cap? Gadzuric/Simmons?
June 28th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
No, I won’t be alright, the problem on a non-basketball board I’m the “expert.”
I had a 7 page thread about how Donovan isn’t a good coach* with Noah as example #1. Horrible shot, showed no improvement, punching a cheerleader…
*But really, nobody is a good coach in Big Time College Basketball, they are all recruiters. If the NBA was smart they turn China’s pro teams into a farm system, draft 12 year olds and send them over there away from AAU, Uncles, Coach K, etc…
June 28th, 2007 at 4:07 pm
Noah punched a cheerleader? Like, a girl?
June 28th, 2007 at 4:26 pm
Veen,
I’m listening to 610WIP and reading between the lines that the Sixers hype on Green is a smokescreen. They are trying to get the Celtics to take him at 5. King and Ainge are trying to fake each other out. The final answers will be forthcoming in a few hours!
I think it’s highly realistic that a deal gets done with Milwaukee. The 6th and 12th picks with Andre Miller are the guts of it. Simmons and Gadzuric very well could be involved, as could the 21st or 30th pick.
June 28th, 2007 at 4:29 pm
took a swipe at her, some hillibilly from the UK waved her pom-pom’s in his face (and not the ones you’d want to be waved in your face). The same week he got into a struggle with the Vandy coach. Over a dead ball, you really didn’t know who was being childish there.
You know what it would take for me to get on the Noah bandwagon?
Start talking about Lovetron. Or change his name to Noah’s Ark. A full length mink coat. Something like that. His Dad was rocking the dreadlocks back in 1983. Same year the Sixers won the Title, hey, wait a minute….
June 28th, 2007 at 8:17 pm
Thank goodness for Danny Ainge and Isiah Thomas, reminding us there’s always going to be someone worse than Billy King. Perhaps tonight’s only consolation.
June 28th, 2007 at 8:33 pm
We’re liveblogging in Toronto at End of the Bench, J. I can see you’ve got things under control here…it’s been a FUN night and we’re not even at 20 at this moment. I’m loving it, babeeeeeee!
June 28th, 2007 at 8:33 pm
Huge Sixers fan, huge basketball fan in general of college and pro. i wonder what the hell do you watch? do you understand the salary cap? If so, why would you think it is even remotely possible to trade Andre Miller to the Bucks? What salary would we get back?
As for Thaddeus Young. The guy is gonna be a monster. Shocking that ESPN would get a know nothing like you to get the pulse of the Sixers fans. This is my first and last trip to this crappy blog. You should be on WIP with the rest of those know-nothings.
June 28th, 2007 at 10:36 pm
Thaddeus Young at 12 was unexpected, but he’s extremely athletic/explosive, intelligent, and hard-working. I’ve heard comparisons to Paul Pierce. A few years away, but could be our best player by then.
Jason Smith’s a solid player. Hopefully, he’ll turn out to be our starter at 4, entrenching Dalembert at 5.
Kyrylensko won’t come over from the Ukraine next season, but he has a chance to be a contributor. One of NBADraft.net’s mocks had him going at 30 to us.
If indeed the Byars trade goes through, we got a real steal. A few mocks had him at 18, and getting him at 42 is gold.
June 28th, 2007 at 11:18 pm
Love the blog! Just thought I would drop you a line to tell you, when you write new blog posts, go over to BeTheRef.com and post a link to your story, and hopefully get a few extra readers for your blog.
June 29th, 2007 at 12:04 am
I can’t put into words the letdown. That’s it with the organization, it’s not heart-breaking but they just let you down. All the moves aren’t majestic catastrophic failures, but just simple disappointing letdowns.
Billy King had all these assets, he had all this goodwill from the fans because of the last half of the season. Only one player was untouchable in the Fans’ eyes. It’s scary, either Billy King is the worst GM in the history of the universes or that last half of the season the Sixers’ weren’t really all that good. Was there really a market for Andre Miller or anybody else on the Sixers’ roster?
Isiah Thomas out-GM’ed Billy King tonight. Getting rid of Francis for Randolph was brilliant. And Isiah has a history of drafting talent, King not so much.
Thank God for Ainge, he’s sending the Celtics to the second round of the playoffs for the next two years. After that, back to the lottery.
Billy King has to have some kind of mental disorder, he just stockpiles a bunch of things that don’t have that much value, 3 first round draft picks - two in the bottom 3rd. A bunch of wing players. And a bunch of overpaid players.
bleah
June 29th, 2007 at 12:10 am
Per http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/0-0-15/Jazzy-Kyrylo-Fesenko.html, seems like Fesenko will be traded to the Jazz. That’s too bad, because it seems like he has a lot of talent.
I think we may see Carney dealt in the coming days; five wing guys is one too many, and Carney seems like the extraneous piece to me.
June 29th, 2007 at 1:21 am
Thanks guys for checking in. I’ll be processing more in the coming days. Rodney Carney should be on notice. I’m glad y’all like the Isiah Thomas comparisons. Gotta love the ol’ Atlantic Division. I’d reply to Dubs, but I guess he’s not coming back to read it. It’s been fun. Peace.
June 29th, 2007 at 6:53 am
I am really curious to know what you think about this draft, I just updated my blog posting my first hand comments but I have to rely on some big NCAA expert to rate our picks
I have the feeling we didn’t solve our problems and missed a great chance but I lack some deeper knowledge of college basketball so maybe you will clear something to me
later
June 29th, 2007 at 9:09 am
I don’t think we did all that bad last night. I think we came out of the draft better than we came in. I know we have a like an infinite amount of wing layers….and still Willie Green but I’m not mad at Billy. I was a little upset at not picking Thornton but Thaddeus Young is a taller, less athletic, much better shooting Al thornton with post-up ability. I project him as a better shooting Richard Jefferson. We adressed another shooter for Kyle and another scorer all in one pick. I don’t know much about Jason Smith but a 7-footer with great footwork, low-post moves and a shooting touch is never bad. I love Derrick Byars. He will be an immediate impact this season. I saw alot of Herbert Hill being in Syracuse and when Providence played us he went off for 29 points, 15 rebounds and 8 blocks! We can’t have Byars, Young, Carney, Iguodala, Bobby Jones all on the wing. Someone has to go before the season starts…we’ll see
June 29th, 2007 at 11:27 am
Jon,
While we’re at it, I just want to say thank you for all the work you put into this blog leading up to the draft. Really appreciate it.
And this is what I just figured out. (assuming nothing else changes) If the Sixers don’t make the playoffs this year, Billy King, Mo Cheeks and Larry Brown are all gone. Not because of six straight years of failure, but the attendance would fall even lower. And the team would be losing money.
Normally, I would think this is a good thing - but then I saw what the Celtics did last night, and basically sold the team down the river from 2010-2015 for the second round of the playoffs for 2008-2009.
So three scenarios are possible…
1) the draft picks were the right ones and the Sixers are a young improving team -like the Bulls a few years ago.
2) the draft picks were so wrong the Sixers are dead in the water and Cheeks/Brown/King are all let go by Christmas. A new hope.
3) The Sixers disappoint again, but Cheeks/Brown/King are given one more chance and they pull an Ainge on us- screwing us for another 5 years.
June 29th, 2007 at 2:09 pm
I predict some sort of a Carney for Kyle Lowry deal. Carney goes back to Memphis, Memphis clears out the PG position for Mike Conley Jr, and Lowry comes back to Philly to backup Andre Miller (or maybe even allows the Sixers to deal Andre Miller for some size).
June 29th, 2007 at 3:09 pm
Dervin I like your scenario #1
the thing I give BK credit for is that he DID NOT go for the quick fix (like trading your # 5 pick for a 32 y/o declining all star with bad knees…)
so drafting a 19 y/o potential all star even if he plays a spot where we are already pretty good makes sense at this point
September 6th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
keep up the good work
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