Whether you like how they got there or not, the Sixers now have a draft pick in the 2026 NBA draft. Of course they owe their own pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder, the price they paid for getting off Al Horford’s contract back in the 2020 offseason.
Thanks to another deal with the Thunder, one you can spend plenty of time arguing over on this very blog, the Sixers are now in control of the Houston Rockets’ first-round pick in this upcoming draft. So, every week we’ll be checking in on the Rockets to see how they’re doing and where the Sixers’ pick might fall as a result.
And what a time to start checking in on them as well. Houston, with a 33-20 record, currently sit as the fourth seed in the Western Conference. With that being the seventh-best record in the league, they would be giving the 24th pick in the draft to the Sixers if the regular season ended today.
That’s far from set in stone, as the Rockets are just a half game up over the Los Angeles Lakers and only two games up in the loss column over the Minnesota Timberwolves in the West. In terms of league-wide standings for draft order, the Cleveland Cavaliers are right in that bunch as well with a 34-21 record.
With how bunched up the middle of the pack is, there could be a ton of movement between now and the end of the regular season and a Houston slump to help the Sixers out is not impossible.
Going 6-4 in their last 10 games, the general vibes around the Rockets seemed a bit off after they’ve come down to earth from a scorching start. The vibes there may now be in utter chaos thanks to another potential Kevin Durant burner account saga.
After some pressed him on X for business investments off the court, fans began to post leaked group chats of supposed Durant accounts talking all kinds of trash about current and former teammates and coaches. None of these accounts have been provably verified as Durant’s, but the story quickly became the talk of the league, something that will be in the minds of that locker room, whether it’s true or not.
The Sixers won’t be counting ping pong balls in the lottery like last year. Their process to acquire this Rockets pick may come back to bite them, but at the same time, they might have picked the perfect team for their fans to hate-watch for the rest of the regular season.