Identifying targets for the Sixers at No. 35 overall based on Daryl Morey’s draft history

At midnight on Thursday, the deadline passed for early entrants of the 2025 NBA Draft to withdraw and return to college. There were some fairly noteworthy collegiate returners in the final days, as the NIL landscape has drastically altered the calculus for many prospects. It was chaos for NBA teams, as the majority of notable prospects on the bubble chose another year in the NCAA over a chance to play professionally.

In any case, there is finally some clarity as to which prospects will be waiting to hear their names called at the end of June. And while the bulk of the Sixers' time and energy will be invested in their decision with the No. 3 overall pick, they also have their second-round pick, slotted at No. 35 overall — a resource which could prove meaningful, particularly given the team's strong draft history since Daryl Morey took over as President of Basketball Operations.

Speaking of Morey's track record of drafting in Philadelphia, now that the lower region of this year's class is settled, it will be far easier to project which options the team will consider at No. 35. In an effort to do just that, I have spent the last few days analyzing Morey's entire draft history in Philadelphia — focused on later picks, from the back end of the first round to any second-round choices, and players the team inked to two-way contracts soon after they went undrafted.

I found some clear trends in terms of the makeup Morey and his front office have generally coveted in prospects they have selected with later picks or signed after drafts. What are those trends, and how can they be applied to this year's class? Let's find some matches:

Age

Many NBA teams have warmed up to drafting much older prospects in recent years. To date, the Sixers have not been one of them. Morey has always leaned in the direction of youth when it comes to the draft, even with late draft picks and undrafted two-way signings. Morey has never drafted a player older than 21.23 years old at the time of the draft (draft ages courtesy of Tankathon.com). The only time he has signed an undrafted player already 22 years old to a two-way deal was David Jones last year (Jones ended up being waived before training camp).

The full list of Morey's late picks and undrafted free agent two-way signings, with their draft ages:

It is not necessarily a philosophy which can be applied to any situation no matter the context, but the basic thinking has been if two players are even in the same realm in terms of overall ability and one is 19 years old while the other is a 22-year-old with a decorated college career, it is smarter to draft the younger player with multiple extra years of development ahead of them.

This strategy worked out wonderfully when the Sixers drafted Jared McCain over Dalton Knecht last summer, despite that choice drawing quite a bit of ire, but it was a whole lot less successful when the decision-makers predating Morey traded Mikal Bridges to draft Zhaire Smith. Like any other, this strategy is not foolproof, but in the long run, teams are far better off drafting young than old.

The set of prospects slated to be available around the No. 35 pick is a pretty old group, which could force Morey and co. to adjust their thinking for at least one year. But there will be some younger prospects available; those players could have an advantage when the Sixers are on the clock.

Wingspan

While having comically long arms is not a prerequisite to get drafted by Morey and the Sixers, having noticeably short arms is a major obstacle. Of the Sixers' later draft picks during Morey's tenure, all but one had wingspans at least three inches greater than their listed heights:

For true center prospects like Bassey and Bona, having such long arms helps them perform various functions at the five, while for other players this sort of length lends itself to positional versatility.

This specific group of players is a perfect one to represent the next key trait the Sixers look for later in drafts…

Athleticism, but not necessarily size

Before diving into this, a shoutout to Nick Kalinowski is in order. Nick is a stellar resource for any and all NBA Draft content, and his Combine Score metrics came in handy here. Nick takes players' official combine measurements and athletic testing results and creates easy-to-digest scores which quantify their athletic ability, physical makeup and a combination of both things.

The key stats here: Vert Score, based on a player's max vertical and standing vertical; Agility Score, based on lane agility, shuttle run and three quarter sprint times; Physical Score, based on height, weight, wingspan and standing reach; and Combine Score, based on on Vert Score, Agility Score and Physical Score.

Each metric is specific to that player's positional designation (a point guard and a center would have different scores if they posted the same results). They can be thought of as percentiles (a player with a 90.0 Combine Score is better than nine out of 10 peers).

MORE: No. 35 pick mock draft roundup

Of Morey's six late picks with the Sixers, four participated in athletic testing at the combine and five were measured. All four players to test had Vert Scores well above average, with three of them being better than the 90th percentile. Meanwhile, all five players who were measured had subpar Physical Scores:

It is not that the Sixers are specifically coveting players who need to put on weight or are shorter than expected for their position. It is that they are far more concerned with finding outlier athletes and ironing out the kinks of their games later on. If a team trusts its coaching staff to drill the fundamentals into a player — and has faith in its strength and conditioning group when it comes to helping players put on muscle when needed — it is easy to get excited about the players in possession of rare athletic traits.

Pre-college pedigree

This is a difficult one to quantify precisely, but I did my best. For 99 percent of NBA fans, the first they hear about a draft prospect is when they enter college — the Cooper Flaggs and Victor Wembanyamas of the world are exceptions to the rule. You would be hard-pressed to find a Sixers fan who was aware of McCain's existence even 24 months ago, when he had already committed to play at Duke University. But for NBA teams, scouting each individual player is often a multi-year process, even for the one-and-done prospects often dominating the top of draft boards.

Anecdotally, it has always felt as if the Sixers place more value in a decorated pre-college career than many other NBA teams, and that observation was borne out by this exercise. Only drafting players who were five-star recruits in high school is impossible, but the Sixers seem to nab players with significant pre-college acclaim quite often. Keep in mind that this list does not include McCain or Tyrese Maxey, both mid-first-round draftees by the Sixers with incredibly strong reputations as five-star guards before attending blue blood schools, because our focus remains on later picks.

High school rankings are somewhat inexact because different outlets have different lists, but I remained consistent as far as ranking source within each individual year:

The clear type here: highly-touted high school recruits who are still young but did not necessarily have the collegiate impact that was expected of them.

Out of curiosity, I went back and listened to Morey's press conference after picking Jaden Springer and Charles Bassey, two extremely highly-touted high school prospects, in 2021. Pedigree was one of the first things Morey alluded to; he mentioned it multiple times during that availability.

"[Springer] was a top high school recruit," Morey said, "which I think often points to — it's a good pool of players to pick from, and I think that's a bit of a theme of the two US[-born] players we picked tonight."

Now, it is time to apply these observations to the 2025 class.

MORE: Sixers-specific scouting reports of top options at No. 3

Players fitting some criteria

The following players currently expected to at least possibly be available at No. 35 fit some criteria we have defined, but not quite all of them:

• Penn State center Yanic Konan Niederhauser has already gone from relative unknown to borderline first-round prospect with a stellar pre-draft process, highlighted by a dominant combine performance. Because of his previous status, he does not have much college pedigree at all, and he will turn 23 years old in March. But Niederhauser stands at 7-foot-0.5 with a 7-foot-3.25 wingspan, weighed in at 243 pounds and combined his strong physical profile with athletic testing results so impressive that he actually posted a 100.0 Combine Score at center.

• Another player making waves in recent weeks has been Hansen Yang, a 7-foot-2.25 center from China. He does not have a Rudy Gobert-esque wingspan, but a 7-foot-2.75 wingspan will certainly do. The second round of this year's draft begins on Yang's 20th birthday, so he has plenty of time to grow. Yang is clearly gifted in terms of size and has some skill to back it up, but he did not test too well athletically. Obviously, there is no high school recruiting data on him.

• Could the Sixers draft a Duke guard in back-to-back years? Tyrese Proctor fits their mold in some ways — he was a decorated recruit before playing for the Blue Devils (ranked 23rd in his class) and had solid athletic testing results, not to mention he shot over 40 percent from beyond the arc on high volume last season. Proctor will be 21 years old for most of his rookie season. He stands at 6-foot-5.5, but his wingspan is just 6-foot-7.25. Pre-college pedigree is also a tougher sell the later a player is in their collegiate career, and Proctor spent three seasons at Duke.

• One of the more interesting pre-NBA arcs in this year's class belongs to Dink Pate, whose decision to bypass the NCAA and spend time in the G League was abnormal. Pate is one of the youngest players in the class — he will not turn 20 years old until March — and he had considerable excitement behind him as a five-star player in high school. But the case becomes tougher to make from here: not only was Pate's production for the Mexico City Capitanes extremely disappointing, but his athletic testing was extremely subpar. Pate did well in agility tests, but his Vert Score was a dismal 9.8.

• As many of the top players taking their decisions down to the wire ended up returning to school, one of the best players to decide to stay in the draft near the buzzer was Florida State wing Jamir Watkins. Watkins stands 6-foot-6.25 and 215 pounds, and his 6-foot-11.25 wingspan is excellent. He was the 80th-ranked recruit in high school. His athletic testing numbers were consistently strong, particularly a 73.6 Vert Score. He even has an intriguing outlier skill; Watkins has mastered foul-drawing to a wild degree — a trait which drew the Sixers to Ricky Council IV two years ago. So, what is the catch here? Watkins will turn 24 years old in July.

• Another major name to bypass another year of collegiate action was St. John's wing RJ Luis Jr., who had an extremely impressive batch of athletic testing numbers, including a 77.5 Vert Score. He has solid arm length, standing at 6-foot-7 with a 6-foot-10.5 wingspan. But while he was not an unknown in high school, he was not a decorated recruit in any capacity. Perhaps most importantly, Luis will turn 23 years old about one month into his rookie season; he is on the older side.

However, one prospect stands out above the rest as fitting the Sixers' mold…

The player who seems to fit all criteria

Allow me to introduce you to Drake Powell, a wing prospect from North Carolina expected to be drafted at the end of the first round or the beginning of the second round:

Drake Powell #NorthCarolina
Hit The Music. pic.twitter.com/DvvPHgkzCZ

— Tyler Rucker (@tyler_rucker) April 25, 2025

Powell's stock fell after a disappointing season with the Tar Heels in which he was a helpful player but did not stand out in the way many expected. Powell only took 5.7 shot attempts per game, a disappointment given his status as a truly elite recruit. Powell made 37.9 percent of his long-range tries, but did so on modest volume.

A five-star player in high school ranked near the top of his class, Powell has decent enough size on the wing with extremely long arms. And if you watched the quick highlight reel above, you already could tell Powell is a stellar athlete, and his testing numbers were off the charts.

A quick rundown of the major data points on Powell:

Powell's outlier athleticism and length and significant pre-college pedigree may cause Morey and his front office to see him as a steal at No. 35 in the wake of his underwhelming season at North Carolina. Powell certainly seems to possess all of the key traits the Sixers have looked for later on in drafts under Morey's leadership for a half-decade.

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