The Philadelphia 76ers will be at the center of the 2025 NBA Draft with their third overall pick. Will they keep it to get more athletic and younger, or package it to acquire another superstar?
A season with NBA championship aspirations turned into a nightmare. Joel Embiid never fully recovered from a left knee injury suffered the previous season, limiting him to just 19 games. He also underwent arthroscopic surgery on the same knee with no timetable for his return.
Paul George, who signed a max four-year, $212 million deal, looked like a shell of his former self. The 35-year-old averaged just 16.2 points per game and missed half of the Sixers’ 82 games due to various injuries.
Tyrese Maxey also missed 30 games with hamstring, hand and finger injuries. In total, the “Big 3” missed a combined 134 games.
President of basketball operations Daryl Morey has stated he wants the 76ers to get younger and more athletic, but he’s also known for his wheeling-and-dealing. According to ESPN NBA insider Jonathan Givony, the 76ers might use that No. 3 pick to bring Kevin Durant to Philly.
“Some teams expect the Sixers to be active in trade conversations, with names such as Kevin Durant (Phoenix) and Lauri Markkanen (Utah) as potential targets in packages that could include Paul George and the No. 3 pick,” reports Givony. “Sixers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey has made a career of being active and aggressive on the trade front, but historically, it’s rare to see a top-three pick being traded.”
Durant, a future Hall of Famer who is a two-time NBA champion, would form a formidable trio alongside Embiid and Maxey, and is a significantly better player than George. However, he will be 37 when the season begins, is in the final year of his contract, and has his own durability concerns.
As for Markkanen, he’s owed $195.8 million over the next four seasons and has seen his scoring average decline for two consecutive seasons.
If the 76ers keep the pick, Rutgers’ Ace Bailey, a 6-foot-7 small forward, is considered the third best prospect behind Duke’s Cooper Flagg and college teammate Dylan Harper. However, since Bailey is viewed more as a project, the franchise might instead target Baylor shooting guard VJ Edgecombe or Texas shooting guard Tre Johnson.
