76ers keeping options open after NBA Draft Lottery

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- After the NBA Draft Lottery, Philadelphia 76ers General Manager Bryan Colangelo summed it up with, "That's the way the balls bounce."

The lottery balls did not fall 100% in the 76ers' favor. They will not get the Los Angeles Lakers' lottery pick until next year.

But with the third overall pick in this June's draft, the 76ers expect to get a baller and a potential future all-star.

"It's good to be at 3 and we're excited about the pick. We think we're going to add a great player or we're going to have some leverage in discussions with other teams about certain situations that we might entertain," Colangelo said. "What we say all the time is we leave all our options open."

If the 76ers stay at 3, their options are expected to be Duke's Jayson Tatum, Josh Jackson of Kansas or Kentucky's De'Aaron Fox, to name a few.

"Anybody can help us. I don't think it's a matter of which pick we got, anybody we're going to get is going to add something," 76ers center Joel Embiid said.

With a third overall pick, a healthy Embiid, and a healthy Ben Simmons, will this team finally be able to get over the hump and get into the playoffs? Colangelo is still a bit leery of setting a timetable.

"We are not going to jump ahead of ourselves. We have a lot of decisions to make before we get there. And rather predict when we're going to make the playoffs, we're just going to let it happen naturally. We're not far away, and we like our direction, and we like the evolution of this team, and how we project out," Colangelo said.

Colangelo is also not ruling out signing an impact player in free-agency.

Trust the process.

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