Philadelphia 76ers: Paul Reed is an encouraging sign of things to come

Paul Reed is better than cash for the Philadelphia 76ers.

After spending the entirety of draft day addressing the backcourt shooting, Philadelphia 76ers general manager Daryl Morey finally fortified his frontcourt a little after midnight with the addition of the DePaul forward Paul Reed.

Measuring in at 6-foot-9, 220-pounds with the wingspan of a 7-plus-footer, Paul is not your traditional backup center. While it would be nice for the Orlando, Florida native to step in and immediately fill Al Horford‘s role behind Joel Embiid, that’s just not his style of play.

What Reid can do, however, is defend multiple positions, fight for rebounds, and even knock down a three-point shot at a pretty decent clip.

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Over the course of his third and final season with the DePaul Blue Demons, Reed averaged 15.1 points, 2.6 blocks, 1.9 steals, and 10.7 rebounds over 31.7 minutes of action per night. Could his 3 point shooting percentage use a bit of work? Sure, but when you attempt less than two a game, that percentage becomes much less important than for a volume shooter like fellow Sixers second-round pick, Isaiah Joe.

Assuming the Sixers keep Reed, either on a full-on NBA contract or a two-way deal, that’s plenty to work with.

At 21 years old, Reed plays the game like an old vet. Equally comfortable on the wings or around the rim, Reed’s ceiling is as a do it all frontcourt chess piece a la Morey’s former find P.J. Tucker, only with better size and higher hops.

With a full season, maybe more in the G League, it’s entirely possible Reed could find a long term home in the Sixers’ frontcourt rotation, especially if he can increase his volume from 3 point range.

Who knows, maybe one day Reed could play small ball center in a Ben Simmons plus four shooters look; a look Brett Brown flirted with during the 2019-20 season but never had the personnel to implement fully.

Is that putting the cart before the horse? Maybe so, but it’s 12:30 am on draft night; what do you expect?

While it’s hard to get all that excited about the 58th overall pick in the NBA Draft, Paul Reed presents a ton more potential than your usual EuroBall stash or 7-foot tall ball of clay. Even if his ceiling is a back half rotational piece, that’s pretty fantastic value Daryl Morey was able to extract from a pick many would simply punt on.

Next. Isaiah Joe’s promise was kept after all. dark

After watching the Philadelphia 76ers sell-off second-round picks for cash consideration year after year, it’s nice to see someone actually use said picks on intriguing young players. Boy, what a concept.