Insider Suggests the 76ers Are the Best Landing Spot for the First Overall 2025 NBA Draft Prospect
The Philadelphia 76ers are gearing up for the 2025 NBA Draft Lottery after an utter disaster of a 2024-25 season. Philadelphia is looking to keep its first-round pick in this summer’s draft, which is top-six protected. If the pick falls out of the top six selections, it will go to the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Sixers have a great chance to keep their pick, and could potentially even move up to the first overall draft spot. It’s been known for several months that Duke’s Cooper Flagg will be taken first overall in the 2025 NBA Draft; now the only unknown is which team will have the rights to take him. The Sixers have a 10.5% chance to land the first overall pick after finishing with the fifth-worst record in the NBA, and one insider thinks Philadelphia is the best landing spot for Flagg.
CBS Sports analyst Kyle Boone said on the CBS Sports show “HQ Spotlight” that he thinks the Sixers would be the ideal landing spot for the 18-year-old superstar. “I would pick the Philadelphia 76ers..and it’s because of several reasons. One among them being, I think, the 76ers have one of the most exciting young cores in the NBA. They’ve got Jared McCain, who was fantastic before injury last season, Tyrese Maxey is on that roster, and Quentin Grimes, who they picked up last season in a mid-season trade, has been fantastic. I think it’d be a nice turn in ‘The Process.’ Joel Embiid has been injured several seasons in a row. I don’t know exactly where that goes, but I do think the young core that’s established in Philadelphia could really, really benefit from a player like Flagg.”
If the 76ers are able to re-sign Grimes this offseason and bring in an elite rookie like Flagg, it could be argued that the franchise would have the best young core in the entire NBA. Obviously, it would take some luck for the Sixers to jump from fifth to first in the draft, but the luxury of drafting a player like Flagg would completely transcend the trajectory of the Sixers’ future. Embiid is hurt, and Paul George just played his worst NBA season in a decade. A do-it-all player like Flagg that would impact success right away would move into a question about the futures of Embiid and George in Philadelphia. However, none of this is relevant until the draft lottery takes place on May 12th.
