We continue our look back at past drafts in the history of the Philadelphia 76ers as we wait until the NBA resumes. We have looked back at numerous drafts so far, but now we take a look at the 2007 draft where the Sixers held the 12th pick.
The 2006-07 season was not fun for Philadelphia. The team traded franchise icon, Allen Iverson, to the Denver Nuggets 15 games into the season and they then released Chris Webber in January in an effort to revitalize a product that had gone bland. So, they focused on the continued development of Andre Iguodala and a new point guard in Andre Miller as the team slumped to a 35-47 record.
With that came the 12th pick in the draft and they selected Georgia Tech’s Thaddeus Young who would become a fixture on the team for a long time. He actually would play a key role on the 2007-08 Sixers team that surprisingly reached the postseason.
However, Bleacher Report did a re-draft of 2007 and they have Young going early to the Milwaukee Bucks at 6. Therefore, they have the Sixers selecting Wilson Chandler out of DePaul at 12.
B/R:
Denver acquired Chandler from the Knicks in the Carmelo Anthony deal at the 2011 deadline, and he overcame repeated injuries to have a strong six-plus-year run as a starting forward in Denver. He’s bounced around since then but stayed in the league as a productive veteran wing.
Chandler, of course, did end up spending some time in Philadelphia. He played 36 games, starting 32 of them, in the 2018-19 season before being sent to the Los Angeles Clippers in the Tobias Harris deal. He averaged 6.7 points and 4.7 rebounds during his time with the Sixers. He’s a career 34.1% shooter from deep.
When one considers the way the Sixers played in the 2007-08 season, Chandler may have turned out to be the better choice due to his shooting ability, but Young fit into the team’s run-and-gun style. Obviously, Young had a career that has placed him among the best in his draft class and that is why he is drafted as highly here.
The Sixers did have a second pick in the first round, they selected Daequan Cook of Ohio State at 21, but they flipped the pick to the Miami Heat for Jason Smith. In the re-draft, the Sixers selected Nick Young. [lawrence-related id=29549,29536,29527]