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Pulse Of Philly Podcast: 'Best Available Player' Just Got Real

By Andrew Porter

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Confusion; the state of being bewildered or unclear in one's mind about something.

That describes my feelings exactly, upon hearing the words, "The Philadelphia 76ers select Jahlil Okafor," come out of NBA commissioner Adam Silver's mouth on Thursday night.

Back-to-back-to-back centers didn't offer any clarity to Sam Hinkie's "plan" we often hear so much about, a "plan" I have admittedly trusted all along. A "plan" that has always been up-front in expressing its desire to draft the "best available player."

Except, we just assumed Karl-Anthony Towns and Okafor would go one-two. We debated, ad nauseam, about which guard the Sixers should take---D'Angelo Russell or Emmanuel Mudiay. Over the past week, Kristaps Porzingis even snuck into the conversation as well.

Not only did "Ja" (as Hinkie says) not fit, but he wouldn't be available, no matter how many Jay Williams, Brian Windhorst, or Chad Ford reports we read hours before the draft. We weren't buying them, or at least, I wasn't. The Sixers' point-guard was going to fall into their laps at No. 3, whether Hinkie liked it or not.

When Russell went second to the Lakers (I know, I couldn't believe Ford got one right either), the term "best player available" got real.

It's tranquil to say the Sixers should take the "best player available" when said player is a 6',5" smooth-stroking left-handed combo guard, who was called the "best pure player" in the draft by respected ESPN college basketball guru Jay Bilas.

When "best player available" would be the Sixers' third straight top-six selected big man, and a player criticized for his ability to defend in space and get up and down the floor, your mind naturally starts to scramble.

"I think that people just sort of counted out Jahlil Okafor as a possibility at number three and then once they took him everyone was a little shocked about it," Jake Pavorsky of LibertyBallers.com told me on the CBSPhilly.com Pulse Of Philly podcast. "I hope they can make it work. I respect them taking Okafor just because you still don't know what you have in Joel Embiid. Who knows when he plays, if he plays this year. Nerlens Noel is a good player. I don't know if he can make the jump. It's something that remains to be seen, so having another low post guy really doesn't hurt especially if it's Jahlil Okafor."

Listen: Andrew Porter and Jake Pavorsky on the Pulse of Philly podcast

 

Philly would have crushed Hinkie for Porzingis, questioned him for Mudiay, and scolded him for trading back. Most (over 70-percent according to two 94WIP polls constructed on Friday), have come to accept it (myself included)---some more reluctantly than others.

With the triple-towers, or Jurassic World at "The Center," is a trade imminent?

"Even from a financial stand point it doesn't make sense to keep all three of them," Pavorsky said. "For now it works.

"I don't know how you keep three front-court players and try and pay them, pay one of them at least soon enough a higher rate and then still try and funnel in new talent through free agency and stuff like that. Someone's gonna need to go."

June 26, 2016 is the deadline for Hinkie. After most, if not all, of four potential first-round picks come to fruition in next summer's draft, we'll need to see results. Not necessarily in the form of wins and losses, but certainly in the form of the young players developing and blossoming well-balanced roster.

"They can still be that same [35-win] team with a healthy Embiid and Okafor," Pavorsky said of the 2015-16 season. "That team would be knocking on the door for an eighth seed."

The Hinkie loyalists, again myself included, have spent their Friday convincing themselves on why Okafor was the right choice. Unfortunately, it's the first time that group needs convincing.

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