NBA Mocks – Sixers’ pick

With the NBA Draft (June 25th) less than two weeks away, I decided to take a look and see who others have the Sixers taking with the 17th overall pick, which is their only pick in this year’s draft.

The Sixers will most likely address their need to replace point guard Andre Miller, who becomes a free agent on July 1st, whether they re-sign Miller or not.  However, they can’t begin negotiating with Miller until the free-agency period begins next month.

In addition, it would be even better if they add a point guard that can shoot to go along with the recently-acquired Jason Kapono as the Sixers ranked dead-last in three-point shooting percentage last season.

While mock drafts can sometimes be more useful in crossing off players the Sixers won’t pick, here are the Sixers’ pick in the following NBA Mock Drafts:

Draft Express (updated 6/11): Ty Lawson, PG, UNC

Hoops Addict (updated 6/11): Ty Lawson, PG, UNC

West Sports Report (updated 6/11): Ty Lawson, PG, UNC

Draft Depot (updated 6/11): Ty Lawson, PG, UNC

Rip City Project (updated 6/11): Eric Maynor, PG, Virginia Commonwealth

InsideHoops.com (updated 6/10): Eric Maynor, PG, Virginia Commonwealth

SI.com – Ian Thompson (updated 6/10): Eric Maynor, PG, Virginia Commonwealth

Pippen Ain’t Easy (updated 6/10): Jrue Holiday, G, UCLA

MyNBADraft (updated 6/10): Ty Lawson, PG, UNC

Slam Online (updated 6/8): Ty Lawson, PG, UNC

NBADraft.net (updated 6/12): Chase Budinger, G/F, Arizona

Yahoo! Sports – Kerry Eggers (updated 6/9): DeJuan Blair, PF, Pittsburgh

CSNPhilly.com – Sean Kane (updated 6/4): Ty Lawson, PG, UNC

NBA-Draft.com (updated 6/11): Eric Maynor, PG, Virginia Commonwealth

Out of this relatively small sample size (14 mocks), half of them have the Sixers taking UNC point guard Ty Lawson.  The only other player selected more than once is VA Commonwealth PG Eric Maynor (four times).

Although there are some knocks (5′11″, “injury-prone,” etc.) on Lawson, last year’s ACC Player of the Year is arguably the quickest guard entering the draft that would fit well in a Sixers’ up-tempo offense.

Plus, Lawson shot 47.2 percent from behind the (college) arc last year.

In their statistical evaluation of point guards from a situational perspective, Matt Kamalsky of Draft Express writes, “no player on this list scored more efficiently than Lawson.”

Tags: Chase Budinger, DeJuan Blair, Eric Maynor, Jrue Holliday, Ty Lawson