It appears the Sixers finally got the memo: If you draft well outside the lottery, you can fill out your roster with cheap talent. If you’re really lucky, you may even get more than just a rotation player.
Perhaps that’s a bit unfair; Daryl Morey’s MO has been to swap players and picks for better ones since he first became GM of the Houston Rockets in 2007. While he never won a championship in Houston, he did get tantalizingly close a couple times.
If you consider some of the NBA’s biggest success stories of the last several years — Milwaukee’s 2021 title, Golden State’s runs in 2015, 2017 and 2018, or (TRIGGER WARNING) Toronto’s in 2019 — you’ll notice that all three teams hit home runs late in the draft.