Chad Ford: Anthony Randolph to Sixers (Follow-up post) | jsams's Blog

Here's a link to NBA draft guru, Chad Ford's latest mock draft.

The draft is now just three days away and unlike most seasons, everything still seems to be up in the air. This happens to be Ford's sixth installment of the oh so popular mock draft and unlike his previous five he has someone other than Marreese Speights going to the Sixers. I've studied over 100 mock drafts in the past month and this is the very first one where this player appears next to the Philly logo. This player is Anthony Randolph. I had a post on this story earlier this week, but word on the street is Randolph has been very unimpressive in his workouts and scouts believe he needs to add a ton of weight to his frame. Both might be the case, but as a Sixers fan I could not be happier with a player of his caliber falling to us at pick 16. Randolph's been compared to current NBA ballers Chris Bosh and Tayshaun Prince. I see the Prince comparison, but Bosh, not so much.

Randolph is officially listed at 6'10'', 197 pounds. That's a ridiculous small NBA body. Last year people complained about Kevin Durant's small frame, who turns out to be a whopping 20 pounds heavier than Randolph. That being said, your not going to find a player as talented as him sitting there after 15 picks.

Randolph had solid numbers last year as a freshman at LSU. The one that stands out the most is the 2.3 blocks per game. Loaded with potential, I'd love to see Anthony Randolph land with Philly come Thursday evening.

Here's Mr. Ford's analysis,

The skinny: At some point, Randolph can drop no further.

He hasn't been great in workouts, needs to add a lot of strength and appears to be a few years away from making an impact.

But he has length, athleticism and tremendous upside, and the Sixers, a team on the rise, can afford to wait.

Here's one last observation. My number one rule of any draft is not to fall in love with a certain player. If you let yourself become attached to a certain player and your team either passes on him or he's taken before the pick, the whole draft experience is ruined. So, as hard as it might be, I'm going to avoid envisioning Anthony Randolph in a Sixer uniform until it's official. On the bright side, if he's taken before the Sixers, Ford's mock draft has Darrell Arthur, J.J. Hickson, Mareesse Speights, JaVale McGee, Donte Greene and DeAndre Jordan all going after pick 16. Any of those players would fill a need and allow me to sleep easy Thursday night.