Sixers Take Tristan Thompson in SB Nation NBA Mock Draft

If you haven't been following along with the SB Nation storystream for their own 2011 NBA Mock Draft, you're missing out. Some great stuff right here at your fingertips. After a few surprising choices at the top of the draft (Biyombo to the Wizards at 6 would now be considered a reach), it came time for the Sixers to make their selection. And Tom Ziller of SBNation.com and Sactown Royalty turned to the Liberty Ballers four to make the pick. With Jordan Hamilton, Alec Burks, and Chris Singleton all gone, our hand was forced to pick a big and Texas Longhorns' Tristan Thompson came out on top.

Here's what I said:

While Tristan Thompson isn't the polished, low-post scorer and defensive rebounder the Sixers need in the short term, he can develop into a possible cornerstone of the franchise with the right teaching. He'd fill the void left by Thaddeus Young (if he leaves) on the offensive glass, because Tristan was one of the nation's best at cleaning up after his teammates. With Elton Brand's contract on the downside of tradeable, he could slip into the starting lineup midseason or next year if Elton gets moved. While he's got the length, I don't think he and Brand would work well as a starting front court, so it's likely that Spencer Hawes would retain the center position for this season.

The hope is that the Sixers will package Andre Iguodala to move up to either the Timberwolves spot at No. 2 or the Cavs' No. 4 pick. Then they could look wing at 16 to replace him, with either Jordan Hamilton, Chris Singleton or Klay Thompson, depending on who's still around. While Markieff Morris, Kenneth Faried, and Nikola Vucevic represent safer options for the Sixers at 16, Tristan has the highest upside and the chance to gel with Evan Turner and Jrue Holiday to continue building the young core of this team.

Agree? Disagree? There were plenty of other bigs around but we opted for upside here.