By Jack Fritz, Sports Talk Philly editor
According to ESPN.com's Chad Ford, the Kings have had internal discussions about the possibility of moving up to secure themselves of De'Aaron Fox even if it costs them the fifth pick and the tenth pick.
There's talk inside the organization about combining picks Nos. 5 and 10 to move up in the draft to secure Fox. If they found a taker, that would be a high price to pay to move up two to three spots.
This is playing right into my wheelhouse. I'm not buying that the Lakers aren't taking Lonzo Ball leaving the Sixers with bad fits and reaches at three. If Ball was there at three, I would absolutely take him there but if he isn't, this is the best case scenario if I'm the Sixers.
Here's why:
Outside of Ball, the Sixers would be sitting there with options of taking bad fits like Josh Jackson, De'Aaron Fox and Jayson Tatum or taking reaches like Malik Monk and Dennis Smith Jr. Jackson and Fox have major shooting concerns around Ben Simmons and Tatum is too much of a ball-stopping isolation scorer for a game that is going away from that.
However, Fox to a team like the Kings makes a lot of sense. He's an uber-athletic point guard that can be seen as a franchise guy to a team that doesn't currently have one. If they think he's the next John Wall paying the price of five and ten seems minuscule. And here's my hunch about the Sixers, they really like Monk and view him as the perfect fit next to Simmons, but taking him at three would be a pretty big reach especially when a scenario like this comes around and you have the option to move down, take the guy you wanted all along and collect more assets in the mean time.
Any argument against trading down is non-nonsensical.
Monk is 100% not going top four. You will get him at 5. The Kings would trade up to take Fox, the Suns have Devon Booker and that would leave the Sixers with the guy they wanted all along AND another top ten pick where you can take another guy to fit around Simmons. Normally, I would agree that you should just take the guy you want at three but when you're choosing between this crop of pretty poor fits, trading down is the right move here.
This is a move that seems to make sense for both sides and it's certainly one to keep an eye on as the draft approaches.
