The NBA draft is now just five days away and teams have to get ready for their final preparations for an important night for a lot of teams. The Philadelphia 76ers are a team in an interesting position as they get set for an important offseason.
The Sixers currently have the 21st, 34th, 36th, 49th, and 58th picks in Wednesday’s draft. However, the belief is that new president Daryl Morey will not be using all of those picks and he will package one of those picks in order to jettison some bad contracts–like Al Horford.
However, there is one draft prospect that the team is interested in and that is Arkansas shooter Isaiah Joe with either the 34th or 36th pick in the second round. He would be considered a bit of a reach at 21 so he makes a lot of sense at 34 and 36.
According to Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Sixers have reached out to Joe. Pompey reports:
“The 76ers are showing a lot of interest,” Bart Reid, one of Joe’s basketball trainers, told the Southwest Times Record of Fort Smith, Ark., back in late June.
Reid also mentioned the Atlanta Hawks and Golden State Warriors as being among at least six or seven teams that were vetting Joe.
“But I know the 76ers have reached out several different times,” Reid said, “and that’s a team when I look without knowing anything on the inside, they can use a shooter. … Everybody can use a shooter, but when you’ve got a center like Joel Embiid, a knockdown shooter comes in really handy.”
If a team is looking for a shooter like the Sixers are, they could definitely use worse than Joe. He shot 41.4% from deep as a freshman and then shot 34.2% as a sophomore. The dip in percentage may scare some fans off, but he did shoot 10.6 attempts from deep as a sophomore compared to 8.0 as a freshman. He also made 3.6 as a sophomore compared to 3.3 as a freshman. The more shots go up, the more chance there is to miss. [lawrence-related id=39074,39068,39064]