Owning the No. 3 overall pick in a draft with two prospects head and shoulders above the rest is a blessing and a curse.
To come up just short of being able to draft Duke forward Cooper Flagg or Rutgers guard Dylan Harper is, of course, a disappointment for the Sixers. But with those two players almost certain to be the first ones off the board, the uncertainty of the 2025 NBA Draft starts with the Sixers' slot at No. 3.
Without an obvious choice as things stand now, the Sixers could very well examine the market for a potential trade down the board where they collect an additional asset or two (or more, depending on how far down they are willing to move). Their current position on the board offers them plenty of optionality in those trade negotiations.
In this week's 5 Sixers thoughts, the teams that serve as the most interesting hypothetical trade partners for the Sixers, should they seriously consider moving down:
Utah Jazz (No. 5)
Utah and the next team to follow were the biggest losers of last week's lottery, dropping down four spots after posting a bottom-two record in the NBA. The Jazz were an NBA-worst 17-65 and will pick at No. 5 after being leapfrogged by four different teams, the Sixers included.
The Jazz will never have much luck acquiring superstar-caliber talent without it being through the draft. Their rebuild has continually slowed down, and now the pressure is mounting to form a more appealing young nucleus as a reward for all of the losing seasons their fans have endured since the team blew up its roster with trades of Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell. If they view Rutgers forward Ace Bailey — or perhaps Baylor guard V.J. Edgecombe — as a player with that sort of upside, the Sixers could have plenty of leverage in trade talks with the Jazz.
Utah owns the No. 21 overall pick and a pair of second-rounders next month in addition to the No. 5 pick. But they also have an embarrassment of riches in terms of future first-round picks thanks to the Gobert and Mitchell trades, plus other moves made during their rebuild. Could the Sixers convince the Jazz to part with a premium first-rounder down the line to move up two spots and nab Bailey or Edgecombe? If so, the most appealing pick to target might be the Phoenix Suns' 2031 unprotected first-rounder, even if it is extremely distant, but they also have other first-rounders from other teams in earlier drafts that could be on the table.
Perhaps a crazier idea, in the wake of ESPN's report on Monday morning that some rival teams anticipate the Sixers trying to package Paul George with the No. 3 pick to trade for Suns 15-time All-Star Kevin Durant or Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen — could the Sixers swap George for Markkanen while only moving down from No. 3 to No. 5? It is certainly not a framework worth betting on for a number of reasons, including it being a tough sell for the Jazz.
MORE: Details, thoughts on ESPN's George/Durant/Markkanen report
Washington Wizards (No. 6)
Washington suffered the same fate as Utah after going 18-64, and while they are in the early stages of a rebuild without much urgency to find the new crown jewel of their organization, they have the capacity to make a spirited push up the board if they view Bailey, Edgecombe or another available prospect as worthy of that sort of investment.
The Wizards also own the No. 18 overall pick; giving up a pick in the middle of the first round is not an unreasonable price to move up three spots. The Sixers would likely ask for more than No. 6 and No. 18 for No. 3, but how much more they would actually need depends on their view of how strong or weak the mid-first-round region of this class is.
Washington's current front office and its previous regime of decision-makers have also accumulated a strong collection of future first-rounders, and perhaps the Sixers would be better served pursuing one of those than No. 18 this year for the sake of maximizing potential upside.
Brooklyn Nets (No. 8)
Brooklyn might be the most interesting team of this bunch when it comes to Sixers trades specifically. That is because the Sixers still owe the Nets a future first-round pick as a result of the James Harden-for-Ben Simmons trade. Exactly when that pick conveys will depend on when the Sixers satisfy their earlier obligation to the Oklahoma City Thunder, but assuming the Sixers lose their 2026 top-four protected first-rounder to Oklahoma City, the Sixers would then owe the Nets a top-eight protected first-round pick in 2028.
If the Nets want to accelerate their rebuild by moving up to No. 3, one structure seems fairly simple: the No. 8 pick and one of Brooklyn's other three first-rounders this year — they also own No. 19, No. 26 and No. 27 — along with the returning of that future Sixers first-rounder, in exchange for No. 3.
There have been discussions online lately about a deal surrounding Nets sharpshooter Cameron Johnson — perhaps No. 3 and the requisite salary filler going to Brooklyn in exchange for Johnson and No. 8. Johnson is a very good player who would make the Sixers much better in the short-term, but even when combining the salaries of Kelly Oubre Jr., Andre Drummond and others to cobble together enough money for it all to match, the Sixers adding Johnson's 2025-26 salary of over $20.5 million to their books would add some noteworthy complications to their roster-building plan.
MORE: Will No. 3 pick prevent Sixers from keeping Quentin Grimes, Guerschon Yabusele?
Houston Rockets (No. 10)
Houston is far and away the best team included here; their 52-win season turned many heads. They own this pick thanks to Phoenix's ineptitude, and many are expecting major moves of some kind from a Rockets team with tremendous depth both on the court and in terms of tradable assets. Their biggest weakness was unquestionably their poor half-court offense, which contributed to their first-round series loss at the hands of the Golden State Warriors. If their front office and scouting department think that Bailey has the sort of upside to be a go-to scorer, they have the bandwidth to potentially get up this high on the board from No. 10.
The Rockets have multiple players with established track records of being quality rotation pieces who are still on rookie contracts. The main names to know here are Tari Eason and Jabari Smith Jr., a pair of players eligible for contract extensions this summer as they prepare for their fourth NBA seasons (if either player does not extend, they would be a restricted free agent next summer).
Eason is probably the more valuable piece at this point, as he has an easier path to being maximized within Houston's current roster and is a potential game-changer on the defensive end of the floor. No. 3 for Eason and No. 10 would be a strong return for the Sixers, but perhaps No. 3 for Smith and No. 10 is a viable deal, too. Smith is a genuine floor spacer at the four whose non-shooting abilities are improving.
ASKING NBA DRAFT EXPERTS ABOUT SIXERS' POSSIBLE CHOICES AT NO. 3
Ace Bailey | V.J. Edgecombe | Kon Knueppel | Derik Queen | Tre Johnson
Atlanta Hawks (No. 13)
This would be the biggest gamble of the bunch, as the Sixers would be dropping 10 spots. Any deal with Atlanta would also have to include the No. 22 pick, which the Hawks own via the Los Angeles Lakers. What else would Atlanta's new-look front office (they still need to hire a lead executive, but it will not be Sixers general manager Elton Brand) be willing to give up to make a splash of this magnitude?
If the Hawks could get up to No. 3 and hit on the pick, they would immediately be surrounding Trae Young with one of the better young cores in the NBA, adding a premium young player to Most Improved Player Award winner Dyson Daniels, Jalen Johnson (possibly the frontrunner for that award before he went down with an injury) and last year's No. 1 overall pick, Zaccharie Risacher.
The Sixers could go one of two routes in terms of what they want to add onto No. 13 and No. 22. The most conventional path would likely be pursuing the highest-upside future first-round pick possible, and the Hawks have one first-rounder in each upcoming draft. The other would be to pursue a player like Onyeka Okongwu, the Hawks' 24-year-old big who really came into his own as a full-time starting center in the second half of last season. Okongwu is under contract for another three years, a period during which he is owed just under $48 million.
Okonwgu would not just be a high-end backup center for the Sixers behind Joel Embiid. He has significant experience playing in two-big lineups during his first five years with the Hawks and could help the Sixers plug two holes at once as a backup at the four and the five.
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