With the 2014 NBA Draft just two days away, we though we would check in with the online mock drafts and review how Joel Embiid’s foot injury has impacted the “expert’s” for which direction the 76ers will go on Thursday night with the third pick.

Needless to say, Embiid’s injury has created a good deal of chaos for Sam Hinkie at the No. 3 spot.  Prior to Embiid’s injury and subsequent surgery, Hinkie was likely going to draft whichever Top 3 prospect — Embiid, Parker and Wiggins — was still on the board when the Sixers went on the clock. Now, all bets are off and the Sixers appear to be a the wildcard of the teams in the Lottery portion of the 2014 Draft.

Thus, when I gathered the “expert” opinions from around the world wide web, I was very surprised to discover only two schools of thought on what Hinkie will do on Thursday night.

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With yesterday’s breaking news, that is the question.

As you know by now, Joel Embiid, the projected 1st pick in the 2014 NBA Draft has a foot fracture and will have surgery today to repair the injury.  Thursday’s headlines sent every team with a Lottery pick this year scrambling to reconstruct their Draft plans and asking, “Is Embiid worth taking a gamble on with a Top 12 pick?”

Embiid’s injury presents a very interesting dilemma for Sam Hinkie the 76ers, who as we all know have two Lottery selections next Thursday night (No. 3 & No. 10) and thus will likely have two opportunities to draft or pass on the athletic, but injury prone, 7-foot center from Kansas.

So we put two questions to the scribes here at Philadunkia…

If he is available, would you draft Embiid at No. 3?…and…If he is available, would you draft Embiid at No. 10?

Answers and ideas after the jump.

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Yesterday we reviewed and analyzed the list of prospects the online “experts” are predicting the 76ers could select with the No. 10 pick in the 2014 NBA Draft.  To be honest, there weren’t any real surprises among the  “expert” forecasts and there certainly wasn’t any of the creativity Sam Hinkie showed at the 2013 NBA Draft.

So, a couple of us here at Philadunkia started wondering, “If Sam Hinkie thinks outside the box at #10 and drafts a prospect that none of the “experts” have connected to the Sixers, which player would Hinkie grab and why?”  

After the jump, four Philadunkia scribes will make a prediction on a “dark horse” selection that Hinkie could roll the dice on at #10 and provide some thoughts on why Hinkie may decide to go that direction with the Sixers second lottery pick.

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Draft day 2014 is quickly approaching.  While most mock drafts have the 76ers taking either Parker or Wiggins with their first pick (No. 3 overall), there seems to be a wide range of players who the  “experts” predict the team will select with their 2^nd Lottery opportunity, the 10^th overall pick.

We pray that Sam Hinkie grabs a prospect with the 3rd pick that someday develops into a franchise level star.  Even if Hinkie strikes gold at No. 3 the 76ers will still have a number of holes to fill, thus finding a solid prospect at #10 will still be a key to rebuilding this franchise.  Since the Sixers have so many needs to address at this upcoming draft and this deep class boasts a host of prospects who could be a good fit with the franchise going forward, there is no consensus among the “experts” as to which prospect Hinkie & Co. may take at No. 10.

So once again, we searched the world wide web and gathered up a host of “expert” opinions on what to expect from the Sixers at the 10th spot on Draft Night 2014.

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The 2014 NBA Draft is two weeks from Thursday and in case you have been living under the damaged 495 bridge in Delaware, you know that the 76ers own two (#3 and #10) Lottery slots in this draft.  Needless to say, June 26th, 2014 will be a monumental night in the history of this franchise.

In the last thirteen years, having multiple Lottery picks at the draft has also provided monumental nights for nine different NBA franchises. Unfortunately for the Sixers and Philadunkia nation, history has shown the majority of those extra special draft nights – which were once filled with so much hope and potential — have developed into monumental failures for the franchises involved.

After the jump, I’ll review the list of franchises that have owned multiple Lottery slots over the last 13 years of the NBA Draft.  Then I’ll analyze whether or not the prospects selected with those multiple Lottery picks had productive NBA careers.

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Believe it or not, 76ers big man Nerlens Noel has more going on right now than just rehabbing his knee and retooling his jump shot.  Off the court Noel is making a few business moves and recently signed on as as an athlete advisor with CoachUp, a Boston-based organization that utilizes an online marketplace to match athletes with private coaches.

Noel is the latest of a long line of Beantown area professional athletes who have joined the ranks of CoachUp to impart their wisdom.  The 76er with the classic high top fade will be working alongside other stars on CoachUp’s Athlete Advisory Council such as former Red Sox’s outfielder Gabe Kapler (CoachUp investor) and legendary Boston Bruins player, turned team president Cam Neely.

In a recent interview with Sara Castellanos of the Boston Business Journal, Noel said of his new appointment, “I wanted to be able to have an impact.”

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When you first see Nerlens Noel in person, you can’t help but marvel at the man’s stature.  At 6-foot-11, 228 pounds and a 7-foot-4 inch wingspan, he’s one of the tallest and longest players in the NBA.

I’ve had the chance to stand side-by-side with him on several occasions now and I’ve been thoroughly impressed by his measurements and what he can potentially bring to the Sixers’ frontcourt in the future.

On draft night last year, I had written off the idea that the Sixers were capable of landing the big man out of Kentucky and I was admittedly shocked when the Jrue Holiday trade had gone down.  Most draft boards had Noel off the board at No. 1 to the Cleveland Cavaliers and, as much as I liked Jrue as a player and a leader, getting two lottery picks for him while shedding salary was a heady move by GM Sam Hinkie.  The Sixers also needed to make it clear to its fans that they were parting ways with Andrew Bynum, and despite losing Jrue, getting the top center prospect in the draft did that.

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For those of us in Philadunkia nation who are old enough to remember the NBA Drafts of the late ‘90’s and early 2000s, you will recall Draft nights during that era were filled with general managers rolling the dice on straight out of high school kids and International prospects with impossible to pronounce names.

In 2005 the NBA age limit knocked the high school kids out of the Draft and after enough Darko Millicic’s (No. 2 overall in 2003), Fran Vasquez’s (No. 11 overall in 2005), Mouhamed Sene’ (No. 10 overall in 2006) and Yi Jianlian’s (No. 6 overall in 2007) washed out of the League, GMs cooled on International prospects.

That was until June 28^th, 2013 when a record 12 International players were selected in the first round of the 2013 NBA Draft and 19 were taken overall – the highest total since 2005.

Well, if you believe all the mock drafts, that International prospect record from 2013 could fall later this month.

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As a general manager, having a top ten pick in the NBA Draft is something that could either make or break the future of your franchise.  It goes without saying then that having two selections in the top ten of the 2014 NBA Draft is a historic occurrence that Sam Hinkie can not afford to botch.

If Hinkie and the 76ers are  fortunate enough to grab a projected “future star” with the third pick in the draft, it doesn’t mean that he can afford to make a mistake with the 10th selection.  If Hinkie can walk away from this draft with two very good prospects he will have greatly accelerated the rebuilding process here in Philadunkia nation and provided a launching point for bringing the Sixers back to relevance on the Philadelphia sports landscape.

However, grabbing a prospect at No. 10 who can help improve a team that won only 19 games this season will not be an easy task. Since 2000, the NBA Draft has seen players ranging from the likes of Joe Johnson to Luke Jackson selected at the 10^th overall spot. The object for Hinkie will be to avoid the Luke Jackson’s of the world.

After the jump, I’ll review and analyze the players selected 10th at the NBA Draft during the last thirteen years.

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May 20^th was a night to remember for Philadunkia nation.  Of course we aren’t 100% happy that we didn’t land the first overall pick in the upcoming 2014 NBA Draft, but we did pretty well for ourselves by landing two Top 10 selections.

In what some believe as the strongest draft class since 2003, we came away with both the 3^rd and 10^th picks.  In theory, Sam Hinkie should be able to select two high quality prospects at those lottery slots that will help turn this franchise around.  However, if you take a minute to examine the NBA Draft since 2000, you will find that there have been multiple booms and busts at the number three spot in the NBA draft.

Today, I will review and analyze for you the recent history of the No. 3 pick in the NBA Draft.  Then on Saturday I will look closely at the recent history of the No. 10 pick in the NBA Draft.

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