Tony Cutillo
The Eagles had a tremendously busy weekend and the Flyers struck gold with the honor of the No. 2 overall pick bestowed upon them, while the Sixers were making their own exciting headlines right beneath our noses. Those headlines included a guy by the name of Furkan Korkmaz, a 19-year-old shooting guard for Banvit of the Turkish Basketball Super League and property of your Philadelphia 76ers.
Over the weekend, the Sixers learned that the 26th pick from the 2016 NBA Draft was named the Best Young Player by the Basketball Champions League. This is an intriguing story and one that bears mentioning.
In the same situation as Dario Saric, Korkmaz was drafted by the Sixers, but decided to stay on his team for at least another season. With the team in full building and “Trust the Process” mode, now is as good as a time as any for them to draft a player who is a few years away from stepping on NBA court.
The book on Korkmaz is he has nice size and length for a shooting guard while being a speedy player with good range. His defense is shaky at best, but he can hit the three-point shot with consistency. The thought of Korkamz playing meaningful minutes next to Joel Embiid seems to be a pipe dream at the current time, but his development is still something to keep an eye on.
I am sure Sixers general manager Bryan Colangelo packed his best high-collared shirt to pay him a visit in Spain to see what kind of potential he has as part of the team’s future. Obviously, everyone is well aware that I am not a BC guy, but this does give him some type of credibility in regards to selecting players. It is nice to know that we are developing young players and some of our latter picks are looking to serve a purpose. What that purpose will be, only time will tell. However, with that offseason coming into play soon and the draft right around the corner, we shall see where BC really stacks up.
Looking around the league, players drafted in the late first round or even in the second, like Isaiah Thomas, can be very serviceable pieces, if not stars for your basketball team. Being able to scour the line and pluck out a few gems is something that good general managers always do. Maybe, just maybe, BC is getting a raw deal. Could he be a sneaky talent evaluator and master of overseas talent? Only time will tell.
As always you can stop by my Facebook page (FantasySportsAddiction) or tweet me (@TCutillo23) for questions or some nice fantasy debates. I can also be heard weekly via the internet stream live at WengRadio every Monday at 4:00pm EST for a weekend sports wrap. But most importantly, you can catch me here at Pi!
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