The NBA is on hold right now due to coronavirus and there is not much else to do or talk about right now other than the NBA Draft. The Philadelphia 76ers have the 22nd pick in the first round of the draft due to the success of the Oklahoma City Thunder and the pick conveying to the Sixers and they have plenty of options at 22.
This is a new series we are starting at Sixers Wire where we will break down the 10 best options for Philadelphia at their draft position. This will be a 10 part series starting with a young 18-year old point guard from France.
Theo Maledon France
We begin this series with Maledon who is a young All-Star in France who averaged 7.4 points and shot 36.7% from deep in the Euroleague. If the Sixers want to find a regular, longterm backup point guard behind Ben Simmons, them Maledon is a guy who can fill that void.
He’s more of an offensive-minded player who has a smooth game who does an excellent job of using hesitations and fakes in order to score. He is not a high-level athlete in any sense, but he just has a really crafty game and that allows him to excel in the paint and score. In terms of his shooting, he can rise up pretty well on his jumper, but his release is relatively slow and it will have to speed up at the next level.
He will need work on the defensive end due to him lacking athleticism and the lack of lateral quickness. His hip turns are good and it makes him solid on that end, but it isn’t like opposing offensive players are going to worry about him defending them. His closeouts need work, he crosses his feet in ISO situations, and he van get pushed off his spot and outmuscled.
Bryan Kalbrosky over at our sister site, Rookie Wire, has Maledon going 24th in their mock draft and he wrote:
Theo Maledon has been a fixture for scouts in the NBA community for several years now. He has participated in the Jordan Brand Classic (2017), the U16 Euro Championships (2016, 2017) and the U17 World Cup (2018). Maledon also has received more playing time in the EuroLeague than most other international prospects so far this season.
At 22nd overall, a team is not expected to get a star player, but a team can get a solid rotational player which is what Maledon can be. His ceiling is probably somewhere around being a solid starter in this league and not so much a huge piece of any team and that is what the Sixers need.
Philadelphia is in a position where they can draft either for need or for the best player available right now and one of their needs is a backup point guard. They need somebody to continue to run things when Simmons goes to the bench and they lost that when T.J. McConnell left in free agency in the summer of 2019. They tried to fill the void with Raul Neto and Trey Burke, but neither player has really worked out and Burke is not even with the team anymore. [lawrence-related id=29193,29182,29173]