Josh Green says he spoke with Sixers, goes to Ben Simmons for advice

Arizona product Josh Green said he spoke with the Philadelphia 76ers and he goes to Ben Simmons for advice.

The NBA draft is approaching quickly in two days and now is the time for the final preparation. Every team has their draft board, every team has their final list of players that they will look at and the draft interviews are close to being done with.

For the Philadelphia 76ers, they have a few needs that they have to address in this draft on Wednesday and there are plenty of options they can go. They can either make the pick at 21 or they can even trade the selection and go get a player who can win right now.

In terms of making the selection, the Sixers have a few options to go with there. One of them is Josh Green out of Arizona who offers a lot of versatility for the wing position and on Monday, he said he had an interview with Philadelphia.

“I did talk with the 76ers recently,” Green said via a Zoom call. “I’ve been close with Ben Simmons for a while now ad he loves it there. It’s a great tradition with the 76ers as far as everything goes. It’s an awesome place. They’ve got superstars on the team right now with Joel (Embiid) and Ben, but I think it’s an awesome city and a great basketball culture.”

Green averaged 12.0 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 2.6 assists in his freshman season with the Wildcats and he did a lot of good things off the ball. He can move well without it and he is a guy who can defend well on the perimeter as shown by his 1.5 steals per game average.

“I talked to Elton Brand, I talked to the head scout,” Green added. “It was really good. They have a bright future and they’ve definitely got good things going on there.”

As far as his shot goes, he did shoot 36.1% from deep in college on 2.8 attempts per game. It’s not like he does one particular thing well, but he does bring a lot of different skills to the table and he already has a good relationship with Simmons which is always a plus.

“When I first came to America, I think it was one of these high school things came out as far as a mixtape or something like that,” Green explained about his relationship with Simmons. “He was able to reach out to me. I think it’s more an Australian thing. To have a group of Australians now play basketball is super cool.”

Green hails from Australia, just like Simmons, so it is definitely helpful to have a fellow countryman in the states to be able to talk to for advice. On top of that, if the Sixers were able to bring him in, playing next to Simmons would most likely elevate his game as he has a knack for making his teammates better.

Green would also be able to have Simmons right by his side for any advice that he needs.

“Him being able to reach out to me first meant a lot to me, personally and it’s awesome being able to reach out to him,” he added. “Obviously, it’s different paths. He was the number 1 pick and whatnot, but being able to talk to him and him giving me advice has been awesome. He’s a great kid. A great guy and I appreciate our relationship.” [lawrence-related id=39144,39130,39127]