The top pick in Thursday's NBA Draft went to the Philadelphia Sixers after a trade with the Boston Celtics. After days of reports, it was no surprise that the first pick of the NBA Draft 2017 edition made Philadelphia was the consensus top choice by analysts and mock drafts. The Sixers selected University of Washington guard, Markelle Fultz, to add to an already star-studded young lineup. Here's the latest on Philadelphia's draft pick Fultz and what he brings to their lineup.
Fultz's college resume
In an NBA draft that's loaded with guards for teams to choose from, Markelle Fultz is considered the best of the bunch.
The University of Washington freshman guard averaged 23.2 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 5.9 assists a game with his squad. At just 19-years-old, there's plenty of upsides there for the young guard of the future for Philadelphia.
The biggest knock on Fultz is of course that he and his Huskies failed to make the NCAA Tournament. However, most fans and analysts will say that winning (or losing) on the collegiate level doesn't necessarily mean much when they get to the professional level.
In the case of the Sixers, he'll be familiar with the fact that they had one of the worst records in the league this past season. Not only that, their previous No. 1 draft pick, LSU's Ben Simmons, also failed to get into the NCAA's "Big Dance."
The young super team?
With Fultz now joining the Philadelphia Sixers, it creates a new "young super team" in the Eastern Conference.
The team consists of last year's top pick Ben Simmons, along with the No. 3 pick from 2014's NBA Draft Joel Embiid. Prior to having to sit out with injuries, Embiid was on pace to become voted to the All-Star game, or even make it as a reserve based on his improved stats on the court. Simmons has yet to show what he's capable of, and now with Fultz there, it opens up plenty of possibilities.
There's also Dario Saric, the international player who took over in the Rookie of the Year race when Embiid seemed to falter. Saric was also drafted in the 2014 draft but played his first season this past NBA campaign. The rookie forward averaged 12.8 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 2.2 assists per game as a rookie.
The scary thing is that the team now has all sorts of young pieces to build around, and could be very similar to what the Oklahoma City Thunder were like in their earlier days with the trio of Kevin Durant, James Harden, and Russell Westbrook. Will the Sixers become a playoff team in the next few seasons? The NBA world will be watching.