Philadelphia 76ers’ nightmare outcome for 2025 NBA Draft

The Philadelphia 76ers trade down with the Pelicans

On paper, trading down in the 2025 NBA Draft isn’t a terrible idea for the 76ers. If they can secure additional assets, present or future, from the Charlotte Hornets to move down one spot and still get their guy at pick four, it would be a win-win for Morey.

Moving down to seven, however, presents plenty of risk, especially if the return is only pick seven and 23, instead of a win-now player fans have been pining over like Herb Jones.

Holding the third overall pick for the first time this decade, the 76ers have a chance to add whomever they believe is the third-best player in this year’s class. They can evaluate every eligible player who has taken the court in college or overseas, project their fits with the team now, and weigh that against their individual long-term ceilings, which has to be considered, what with Embiid’s long-term health a question mark.

At seven, the 76ers could still get a good prospect, maybe even one who becomes the best player in this year’s class, considering how volatile any draft can be, but the decision to punt on making a decision and instead allow the board to fall how it will would effectively show a lack of commitment to any one player, or a belief that the group of players behind Cooper Flagg and Harper have roughly the same upside, even if they all don’t present the same quality of fit.

Ideally, Morey and the 76ers would enter the draft with a clear hierarchy of players they like and make sure they get their guy, be that at pick three or four. Wasting a chance to select a top 3 player to instead take another shot at a mid-round pick, especially considering the team’s floor moving forward, could blow up in their faces, especially if all the best-fitting players are already gone.

VJ Edgecombe, Kon Knueppel, and Tre Johnson are gone

If a team not named the 76ers drafts Bailey at pick No. 3, it’s safe to assume that VJ Edgecombe, the player reportedly tabbed the “leader in the clubhouse” to land in Philadelphia, will almost certainly be gone one pick later to the Charlotte Hornets at four. While the Hornets are not a team good enough to worry about fit too much in their pursuit of building a core, Edgecombe slides in nicely alongside Lonzo Ball and Brandon Miller, as a two-way wing who can fit nicely in Charlotte’s backcourt long-term.

From there, the 76ers would have to wait through two more selections, belonging to the Utah Jazz and the Washington Wizards, and hope that the players they also like, which could include Texas sparkplug Tre Johnson and Duke sharpshooter Kon Knueppel, don’t also come off the board before they go on the clock.

Now granted, even at seven, there should be multiple interesting players still on the board, including 6-and-D wing Carter Bryant of Arizona, and Maryland big Derik Queen, who has his supporters within the fanbase. While Bryant won’t be entering the NBA with the best collegiate stat line, averaging just 6.5 points and 4.1 rebounds in 19.3 minutes of action a night, he’s a 6-foot-8 forward with ample athletic gifts who could eventually become a starting two-way wing if he’s developed properly.

Queen, by contrast, is more of a ready-made interior scorer, averaging 16.5 points and 9.0 rebounds per game on 30.4 minutes of action a game, but he only attempted a single 3 per game last season and made just seven of his 35 attempts. Queen’s upside as a playmaker is exciting, especially if Embiid is never able to return to his peak form, but if “The Process” recaptures his MVP form, his fit with Queen becomes much harder to imagine.

Could Bryant, Queen, or another player ultimately become a star in South Philadelphia? Potentially so, but if a player selected between three and six does instead, it could be a costly gamble that came up snake eyes.

Ace Bailey becomes an All-Star wing with the Pelicans

And last but not least, the worst-case scenario for the 76ers in the 2025 NBA Draft would be passing on Ace Bailey, only to watch him become the next Jayson Tatum in another jersey.

That’s right, while fans have been debating whether or not Bailey or Edgecombe should be the guy at pick No. 3, with the latter overtaking the former definitively after the Rutgers product canceled his scheduled meeting and workout with the team, one question has remained: what if Bailey figures it all out? What if he stops taking bad shots, accepts a 3-and-D role as he becomes more and more comfortable at the NBA level, and takes his game up a notch, becoming the 6-foot-9 two-way wing every team is desperate for in the modern-day NBA?

Yes, Bailey has rubbed fans the wrong way with how he’s handled the pre-draft process, but even when announcing his canceled visit, it was noted by reporters that this does not preclude Philadelphia from taking the forward in the 2025 NBA Draft. He is a very talented player with sky-high potential but a scary floor, but if he reaches that potential elsewhere, it will be a decision Philadelphia fans never forget, as they’ve continued to lament losing out on Tatum to the Celtics in the Markelle Fultz trade-up for almost a decade now.