Philly Just Traded For The NBA #1 Pick & It’s Time To Hop On The Bandwagon

THE.

POPCORN.

Casual fan of the NBA but haven’t gotten to the point of picking a team just yet?

Run out now. Go to any sports or urban store. Get yourself a Philadelphia 76ers jersey. Do it. Do it now.

The usually ho-hum NBA Draft suddenly got incredibly interesting overnight, with the confirmation of the long-suspected trade between Philly and the Boston Celtics, that will now see the Sixers pick first overall in the draft, rather than the Boston boys.

The Sixers and Celtics agreed to a trade that sees Philly acquire this year’s #1 pick, in exchange for this year’s #3 pick, and a future first round draft pick. That future pick is likely to be one previously acquired from either the Los Angeles Lakers or the Sacramento Kings, meaning that Philly is realistically only giving up one of their own picks to move up to the top spot in the draft.

The thinking behind the trade, largely, is that the player the Sixers mosts covets in this year’s draft – point guard Markelle Fultz, would not be available by pick 3, whereas the players the Celtics are circling – forward Josh Jackson and forward Jayson Tatum – almost certainly will still be available at pick 3.

For the Sixers, they add the playmaking, franchise point guard they’ve been coveting during their rebuilding “process” to stand alongside Joel Embiid and the still-yet-to-debut Aussie phenom Ben Simmons. As for the Celtics, they add to the absurd war chest of first round draft picks accumulated (nine draft picks in the first rounds of the next two drafts) which they will almost certainly be using as an all-out assault on bringing in existing franchise talent.

The Celtics might be good, but that prospective Sixers lineup of Fultz, Embiid, Simmons, and Jahlil Okafor is exciting as shit.

We’re not kidding. Keen to get into basketball? Punch your ticket on the bandwagon now. Jerseys are going cheap on the NBA Australia store. Get involved.

The NBA Draft is set to go down at 9:00am this Friday (Australian time).