After accumulating draft picks like they were Pokemon during the Process years, the Sixers began slowly hemorrhaging assets. They traded a top-six-protected 2025 first-round pick to dump Al Horford onto the Oklahoma City Thunder a few years ago, and they sent two first-rounders (including a top-eight-protected 2027 pick) to the Brooklyn Nets in exchange for James Harden.
That left the Sixers in dire draft-pick straits heading into this past offseason.
Because the Sixers had already traded protected 2025 and 2027 first-rounders, they were subject to the Stepien Rule, which prohibits teams from being without a first-round pick in back-to-back drafts.