/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/36741326/20140329_jla_ss1_364.0.jpg)
If there is anything we have come to learn about this Sixers re-build, it's that they are seeking out the best players available in the draft to help build their core. Position is extraneous, Philadelphia is going to take the top guy on the board and try and make it work. As Spike Eskin told me about a month ago "they're just getting dudes right now".
Maybe that's why the front court is chock full of em' (with possibly one more on the way). Playing devil's advocate here, there is a decent chance none of the big men in Philadelphia end up working out. Nerlens Noel played well in Vegas, but his lower half is still absurdly skinny, and he left Sin City with a couple of nicks and bruises. Joel Embiid could be a franchise player if he can free himself of the injury plague that has haunted him since March. Navicular bone fractures, like the Wu, are nothing to mess with. Dario Saric's game may not translate at the NBA level as a low post threat or as a stretch four.
With all that being said, does it really hurt to take another big man? Especially if he could be as revolutionary of a player as Karl Towns?
Basketball is truly an ever changing game, and front court players are doing their part in transforming it. They're all cut from the same cloth nowadays (or maybe grown in the same lab): tall as hell with an equally crazy wingspan, can run the floor like wing players, who flash handles like point guards with range like a shooting guard. Towns is going to become the face of the modern era NBA big.
An incoming freshman at Kentucky, Towns enters a situation in Lexington where he'll be fighting with multiple guys for playing time at the four and five position, but there is little doubt he will earn that. He has an NBA ready frame, and possesses such a potent offensive game it will make your head spin. Teams have no choice but to defend him out to the three-point line. He can knock down the occasional fadeaway, and despite his raw post moves he is still a behemoth on the low block. Towns moves with the agility of a guy half his size on the fastbreak, and I imagine he'll be on the receiving end of plenty of lobs from new Wildcats point guard Tyler Ulis.
The Jersey native also has some international experience under his belt as a member of the Dominican Republic national team. Although he played sparingly over eight games, he was 11-18 from the floor and an admirable 10-15 from the line.
Oh, and did I mention he could grow to as tall as 7' 3"?
Towns is a freak athlete who has the physical tools and natural basketball skill to wreak havoc on the NBA. If the Sixers opted to add to their growing collection of big men, I can think of no better option for this team than Karl Towns.