Philadelphia 76ers: 2019 NBA Draft prospect primer

Tyler Herro – Kentucky

Unlike the NFL, the NBA holds its annual draft before free agency, and as a result, how the Philadelphia 76ers choose to tackle said draft will be incredibly telling for how they believe things will shake out a week later when free agency finally opens up.

If the team opts to go after a long, 3-and-D forward with plug-and-play versatility, like, say, Belmont senior Dylan Windler, or North Carolina senior Cameron Johnson, that’s probably a good indicator that either Jimmy Butler or Tobias Harris plans to sign elsewhere.

But what if all signs point to the dynamic duo (or trio if you include J.J. Redick) actually sticking around in the City of Brotherly Love? With a very expensive roster looming just over the horizon, and a need to add as many as 10 players to the roster, who’s the highest upside non-lottery player the Sixers should target in the draft?

That honor should fall on the shoulders of freshman Kentucky shooting guard Tyler Herro.

Herro, who turned 19 midway through his lone season in Lexington, is a 6-foot-6 shooting guard from Milwaukee, Wisconsin with an eye for the basket. While he wasn’t the best player on the 2018-19 iteration of Jon Calipari‘s Wildcats squad – that honor would go to probable lottery selection PJ Washington – he finished second on the team in scoring at 14 a game, second in assists with 2.5, and first overall in made 3 pointers a game at 1.6 (at a 35.5 percent clip).

While 35.5 percent in the NBA is about league average and looks especially unimpressive when you consider Herro is, you know, a shooting guard, that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s a flawed prospect.

Far from it, in fact.

Much like another former Wildcat shooting guard selected outside the top-10 – Devin Booker – Herro plays shooting guard in the neo-classical sense: scoring the ball from all over the court with seemingly reckless abandon for passing it to his teammates.

Call it the Mamba Mentality, or just confidence, but when Herro gets the ball in his hands, it usually gets in the hoop, or at least close to it. Though he took over 73 percent of his shots from beyond the arc in college, Herro shot almost 54 percent from the field and showed impressive creativity around the rim, either in the half court or off the fast break.

As of right now, the Sixers really only have one player on their roster with a relatively similar skillset, 2018 first round pick Zhaire Smith, and his offensive game is still a work in progress. Herro certainly isn’t as talented on the defensive end as Smith, but he’s already a more dynamic scorer and could become even better with some seasoning, and a less demanding role as Brett Brown‘s fourth, fifth, or maybe even sixth offensive option.

But no matter how interesting of a fit Herro would be on this new iteration of the Sixers, he actually has to be on the board when the 24th pick comes on the clock – a possibility that is far from a sure thing.

Typically selected anywhere between 15-26 in most mock drafts, Herro is a popular sparkplug scorer who’s been linked to everyone from the Indiana Pacers, to the Oklahoma City Thunder. While he is a bit of a boom-or-bust player, and his long-term floor and ceiling are pretty far apart, pretty much every team in the NBA could use a scoring guard either in the starting lineup or as an option on their second unit.

However, if Herro is on the board at 24 when the Philadelphia 76ers make their pick on the June 20th, his upside and potential to develop into a cost-controlled starting caliber shooting guard alongside Ben Simmons may be too enticing to pass up – especially if Jimmy Butler and Tobias Harris stick around.