Sixers Intrasquad Fantasy Draft: Eighth Pick

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.

The NFL regular season technically kicked off Thursday night, but as the old saying goes, it’s not really football season until Mike Scott is involved in some sort of altercation at an Eagles tailgate. I’m thrilled the Birds came back to pull out a victory over Washington in their season opener, but I’m still eagerly counting down the 43 days remaining until the start of the NBA regular season. In the meantime, let’s continue marching along with our Sixers intrasquad draft.

Last time we convened, Zhaire Smith was selected to hop aboard the Sixers Red squad, receiving 41 percent of the vote. You can certainly make the argument that Smith was the best perimeter defender left on the board. With Zhaire stationed at the point of attack and Joel Embiid patrolling the paint, Sixers Red has the spine of a formidable defensive group. However, the Embiid-Mike Scott-Smith triumvirate is in clear need of a primary ball handler. The Sixers looked to expand that portion of Zhaire’s game during Vegas Summer League, but coming off an abbreviated rookie season, he’s not ready for that type of responsibility. The 21 percent of the voters who chose Trey Burke will be hoping he makes it back to the 12th pick.

Our next squad on the clock, Sixers White, is less in need of that primary ball handler with Ben Simmons and Josh Richardson already on the roster. Building around a pair of versatile, two-way players here, voters can go in a few different directions. They could opt to upsize and grab Kyle O’Quinn or Jonah Bolden, or snag another wing like James Ennis or Matisse Thybulle and create a legion of switchable perimeter defenders.

The choice is yours. Happy Monday morning! The Eagles are 1-0 and we are one day closer to seeing this guy back on the hardwood:

Sixers Red: Joel Embiid, Mike Scott, Zhaire Smith
Sixers White: Ben Simmons, Josh Richardson
Sixers Blue: Tobias Harris, Al Horford

Who should join Ben Simmons and Josh Richardson on Sixers White?