The Philadelphia 76ers will have a lot of eyes on them as they head into the 2025 NBA draft. Owners of the No. 3 pick, there is a lot of talk about the Sixers looking to trade down either for financial implications or to acquire more assets.
The Sixers have plenty of avenues to go down as they look to build their roster. They can either make a selection at No. 3 with Baylor’s VJ Edgecombe, Rutgers’ Ace Bailey, Duke’s Kon Knueppel, or others, or they can trade down to get more assets and create more cap space.
As Philadelphia heads into the draft, there will be a lot of options, but two teams have reportedly reached out to the Sixers–and the San Antonio Spurs–in an effort to trade up. Those two teams are the Brooklyn Nets and the New Orleans Pelicans, per Yahoo! Sports:
The Spurs hold the second pick. The Sixers are third. San Antonio and Philly aren’t shopping their picks per se, but they’re listening. League sources say New Orleans (seventh) and Brooklyn (eighth) have reached out about moving up.
The Sixers have maintained publicly that they intend on making a selection at No. 3 which makes a lot of sense when considering the potential talents they can have. Edgecombe or Bailey would be a great addition to the roster. However, the Sixers trading down would potentially create more cap space and it would give them some more assets.
In terms of what a framework of a deal would look like, the Pelicans have the No. 7 pick and would likely have to include Herb Jones in the deal. The Sixers would likely send Kelly Oubre Jr. and Andre Drummond and the No. 3 pick to New Orleans. In terms of the Nets, they would likely send a package centered around the No. 8 pick and Cam Johnson, while Philadelphia sends the Oubre, Drummond, No. 3 package to Brooklyn.
In both instances, the Sixers get a win-now player as well as draft assets. Either way, the Sixers would be able to achieve their goal of adding younger pieces to the roster with the picks they acquire and Jones and Johnson are win-now players who can help win a title right now. Philadelphia will be looking to remain title contenders while also adding an injection of youth to the roster. Those trades are helpful in both goals.
