Sixers Intrasquad Fantasy Draft: Second Pick

Editor’s note: Shout out to Liberty Ballers community member gramercy riffs, who has already made a fanpost about a Sixers intrasquad fantasy draft. We’re tweaking his idea a bit and putting the draft to a community vote in this exercise.

In our initial post introducing the Sixers intrasquad fantasy draft, the first overall selection went to Joel Hans Embiid, running away with a whopping 92 percent of the vote. It’s no surprise that “first pick on the playground” went to the guy considered a top-10 player in the league. Talent is no issue for the big man; the two main factors holding Embiid back from his stratospheric ceiling are the ability to stay on the court, and maintaining his effectiveness on it via improved conditioning.

The Sixers addressed the former by adding Al Horford and Kyle O’Quinn to reduce the burden on Embiid. He will be able to rest more both within games and within the season as a whole, without the team experiencing as drastic a drop-off as when he was not on the court last season. As for the latter issue, you had to like what Philadelphia 76ers co-owner Michael Rubin said regarding Joel’s conditioning on a recent episode of the Bill Simmons Podcast:

“Jo is determined...He’s on a mission, I think he’s on a mission...Joel is a really smart and intelligent guy. Also, you know, I think a lot of people might underestimate his intellect. When he went through what he went through last year, he’s not just like, ‘shit we lost, let’s move on.’ He’s saying that’s gonna drive him like crazy to be better, and I think he also knows he’s got a body he’s gotta take really good care of. So I think, I’m a huge believer that...his conditioning will be the best ever.”

Obviously, Rubin and Embiid are close, so Rubin is not going to say anything but glowing remarks about Joel, but you still have to like the sound of ‘his conditioning will be the best ever.’ Any significant improvement in that department could mean curtains for the rest of the league.

Now, with Joel captaining our Sixers Red squad, let’s select our captain for the Sixers White group.