It is widely believed that LSU forward Ben Simmons will be the top overall pick in next week’s NBA Draft by the Philadelphia 76ers. Simmons, however, has yet to work out for the Sixers, or any other team for that matter.
Top draft prospects limiting their workouts is nothing new. Last year Karl-Anthony Towns worked out only for the Minnesota Timberwolves, who owned the top pick. Simmons, however, hasn’t even done that, and the draft is only nine days away.
Barring a last minute change, however, that’s exactly how it will remain as Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Simmons doesn’t plan on working out for any teams before the draft:
Unless something changes, the 76ers won’t work out Ben Simmons during the NBA predraft process – at least not at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. They are expected to use the first overall pick on the former Louisiana State University power forward. However, Simmons doesn’t plan on working out for NBA teams leading up to the June 23 NBA draft.
While that would seem to open the door for Brandon Ingram to potentially move ahead of Simmons and be taken first overall, Sixers President of Basketball Operations Bryan Colangelo says that it changes nothing:
“It’s not a red flag,” Sixers president of basketball operation Bryan Colangelo said. “Everybody deals with the draft process differently. Sometimes agents are involved. Sometimes families are involved in those decisions. Again, everything we get in respect to our intel that it relates to Ben, is he would very much like to be selected No. 1.”
For the Sixers, not working out their eventual draft pick is nothing new as each of their last three first-round picks never set foot in the Sixers practice facility before being taken by the team. By all accounts, it looks as if the Sixers are locked in on Simmons at number one.
For the Lakers that simply means that Brandon Ingram will almost surely be the guy at two. Even though they have worked out other top prospects, it seems highly unlikely that any of them will surpass Ingram.
