2016 NBA Draft: Is Ben Simmons Worth the Risk?

The Philadelphia 76ers gained the No. 1 pick in the 2016 NBA Draft and are expected to use it on LSU’s Ben Simmons.

The NBA held their annual draft lottery on Wednesday night and once the balls stopped bouncing around, it was revealed the Philadelphia 76ers and Los Angeles Lakers had drawn positions one and two for the NBA Draft on June 23.

Considering some analysts believe this to be a two-player draft, you might forgive both the Sixers and Lakers if they feel pretty good with more than a month to think deeply about their picks.

As is the case ahead of any professional sports draft, there will be visits, workouts, evaluations and interviews conducted with countless prospects looking to cement their place on draft night.

Yet in the absence of an unforeseen shakeup of epic proportions, it’s a foregone conclusion Ben Simmons and Brandon Ingram will go first and second.

Or maybe it’ll be Ingram, then Simmons.

Whatever the ultimate order ends up being, there’s a near consensus it’ll be either Duke’s silky smooth wing or LSU’s promising Aussie taken in the top two slots.

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So where’s the drama and intrigue for this year’s draft?

Look no further than Simmons’ resume to find enough questions to wonder whether Philadelphia will pull the trigger at No. 1.

Rewind back to October and Simmons would have been the top pick with no questions asked. Considered something of a LeBron James 2.0, professional scouts were already drooling over the 6-foot-10 forward’s ability to score, defend, pass and handle the ball.

Then a funny thing happened.

Simmons’ LSU Tigers, who were expecting big things heading into the 2015-16 campaign, stumbled badly. Instead of building on an NCAA Tournament appearance from 2014-15, the Tigers sleepwalked to a 19-14 mark culminating in a 71-38 flameout against Texas A&M in the SEC Tournament.

A season that began with such promise became an exercise in frustration with losses to the likes of College of Charleston, Houston, N.C. State and Wake Forest. The Tigers rebounded somewhat by going 11-7 in the SEC, but by then, LSU’s series of non-conference losses had all but doomed their NCAA Tournament hopes.

The biggest question was how a team that returned key players such as Keith Hornsby, Tim Quarterman, Josh Gray and Jalyn Patterson could have stumbled so badly heading into the new campaign, especially since Simmons was viewed as the final piece of a puzzle to catapult LSU back into the national conversation.

For whatever reason, the Tigers simply never jelled.