The 2019 NBA draft was an interesting one for the Philadelphia 76ers. They only focused on one player, Matisse Thybulle, and then they traded up to grab him from the Boston Celtics.
The Sixers held the 24th pick entering the draft and they then traded up to 20 in order to select Thybulle. The defensive stud out of Washington has been just that as he has been terrific on that end of the floor and has even made a couple of All-Defensive Teams.
In a 2019 re-draft put together by Bleacher Report, Thybulle goes No. 10 in the draft due to what he has done at the NBA level and the Sixers ended up selecting Naz Reid with the 24th pick. For this exercise, Sixers Wire will assume that Philadelphia kept the 24th pick instead of moving up to 20.
B/R on Reid:
Naz Reid has quietly become one of the league’s more reliable backup centers over the last two seasons.
During that stretch, he averaged 9.7 points, 4.2 rebounds, 1.0 blocks and 0.8 threes in only 17.4 minutes per game. (That equates to 19.7 points, 8.6 rebounds, 2.0 blocks and 1.6 threes per 75 possessions). He’s hitting 34.7 percent of his threes, too.
Reid would have been a great backup center to Joel Embiid as he would be a long-term solution due to his youth and his ability to do a variety of things on the basketball court. He has had a solid career while with the Minnesota Timberwolves while being undrafted.
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