Philadelphia 76ers: If Tyrell Terry is a dream, don’t wake me up

If Tyrell Terry is a dream to the Philadelphia 76ers, don’t wake me up.

*sigh* can we be honest for a second? I know this idea has gotten a ton of play and feel all but inevitable in a Buddy Hield-for-Al Horford-sort of way, but Stanford’s Tyrell Terry probably isn’t going to be on the board for the Philadelphia 76ers to pick at 21st overall in the 2020 NBA Draft.

I know, I know, he’s fallen to the team in plenty of recent mock drafts, or fallen even further like in Bleacher Reports’s final mock or (impossibly enough) to the Dallas Mavericks at 31 in a CBS Sports mock by Gary Parrish, but as The Ringers’ Kevin O’Connor pointed out in a fantastic feature on Terry about a week before the fateful day, it seems just as likely the 20-year-old point guard is going to hear his name called in the mid-teens as opposed to the early 20s.

Sidebar: O’Connor has Terry ranked eighth on his big board and going to the Minnesota Timberwolves 17th overall in his final mock draft.

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With teams like the Nets and the Knicks having conducted meetings with Terry in the lead up to the draft – both of whom have picks higher than the Sixers – the Cardinals’ one-and-done wonder very well may be filling in the blanks on one of those weird, generic watch ads on Instagram when the Sixers go on the clock.

If that happens, it would be a true shame because Tyrell Terry may be the most exciting player in this year’s class and could be a revelation in the Philadelphia 76ers’ starting lineup for years to come.

Is Terry undersized? Even after his very well reported upon growth-spurt, the answer remains yes. Is he a bit of a one-way player who may never be an above-average NBA defender? Yup, even though Terry tries, he’s not the kind of player who will ever lock up Steph Curry for 34 minutes a night.

But does he flash shades of Trae Young even within the confines of the NBA wasteland known as the PAC-12? Oh, you’d best believe it.

Like Young, Terry is an undersized point guard who will stand out initially for his limitless range and willingness to let the 3 ball fly. Over his 31 game tenure with the Cardinals, Terry attempted an average of 4.9 3 pointers a game and drained them at a 40.8 percent clip. Whether running the show as Jerod Haase’s top offensive option or schemed into a secondary role playing off the ball next two *fellow combo guard Daejon Davis, whenever Stanford needed a bucket easy or incredibly hard, Terry was the guy, as his highlight reel showcases perfectly.

Terry is also a plus-passer, an aspect of Young’s game that few seem to appreciate outside of Hawks fans and stats junkies. Even if his 3.2 assists per game left a lot to be desired, the 20-year-old Minneapolis native has a sharp basketball mind and is more than capable of pulling off Ben Simmons-esque passes without an ounce of foreshadowing.

If Terry hits his ceiling, which again is B+ Trae Young, he could easily be a 16-10 guy who knocks down 3 pointers way above the NBA average.

Do you want to know what else Terry could do? Be an absolute beast paired up with Joel Embiid.

Whether running a traditional one-five pick-and-roll or flying around the court like 2017-19 J.J. Redick to land Embiid an open outlet pass, Terry’s offensive upside is nearly unmatched among this current crop of NBA prospects, let alone the players available via trade or free agency.

Am I being a tad optimistic? Eh, maybe so. But I genuinely believe Terry is the kind of player the NBA is rapidly starting to gravitate toward – undersized, yet athletically gifted guard capable of trick passes and video game shots – and landing one now could set the Sixers up for success like few other non-lottery players can boast.

If I was an NBA general manager, I’d write down Terry’s name Sonny Weaver-style and pick him 10 times out of 10, whether I’m picking one, 15, or 21. He clearly loves basketball, unlike certain consensus top-5 picks, put a ton of work in during the pre-draft process to get his body right, and may end up being 6-foot-6 if his current growth spurt continues into his rookie season.

And hey, even if Terry doesn’t pan out, it’s not like players selected in the 20s have this amazing track record of success. Bryan Colangelo traded back into the first round to select Anžejs Pasečņiks 25th overall, and he was such a lost cause the team didn’t even pick up his rights before he could sign a two-way contract with the Washington Wizards in 2019. If Terry only ends up being a bench shooter in the same vein as Landry Shamet during his tenure with the Sixers, that’s still pretty great value for a pick 21.

Could Tyrell Terry be there when the Philadelphia 76ers are on the clock later this evening? Sure, anything is possible, and in this particularly peculiar draft where seemingly every lottery team wants to trade down, there is always a chance. Will he be there when the Philadelphia 76ers are on the clock later this evening? No, as these things often turn out when it comes to things Philly fans want oh so badly, I imagine some other team – probably Boston – will swoop in and steal Terry away without so much as offering to trade him the team’s way for more assets. And frankly, that’s a shame because, in this writer’s humble opinion, there isn’t another player I’d like to have wedged between Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid for the next decade than Tyrell Terry.

*Yes, you read that correctly. Stanford effectively ran a two point guard system with Terry and Davis splitting lead guard duties. How perfect is that for Terry’s fit next to Simmons?