When he was helping out the Sixers front office, what were the best draft picks for new Chicago Bulls general manager Marc Eversley?
The early 2010’s were the days where the Philadelphia 76ers were made famous for their tanking strategy, that became known as “the process”. Even one of their biggest stars on the current roster, former Kansas Jayhawks center Joel Embiid, has one of his main nicknames as “The Process”. But one of their former executives, ex-vice president of player personnel Marc Eversley, didn’t see much success for the Sixers in the NBA Draft while he was with the organization. Now Eversley is the recently hired general manager of the Chicago Bulls to replace Gar Forman.
Eversley joined the Bulls organization after the Reinsdorfs pulled off the hire of former Denver Nuggets general manager Arturas Karnisovas to be the lead executive voice in the front office. Karnisovas was brought aboard to replace former vice president of basketball operations John Paxson as the lead executive. And the official title for Karnisovas will be similar to that of Paxson’s previously, as executive vice president of basketball operations.
However, it is important to understand what the new Bulls front office personnel did in their past in terms of roster building to know where they will take this rebuild in the Windy City and what credentials they bring to the table. What we do know is that Karnisovas and Eversley come from much more successful organizations, at least of late, than the Bulls.
Eversley worked his way up to the higher ranks of the Sixers organization as they started to find more success finishing out “the process” in the Eastern Conference in the last two years. Here’s a look back at his three best NBA Draft picks during his run in the Sixers front office.
With the 26th overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft, the Sixers took a flier out on the 6-foot-7 and 190 pound Turkish wing Furkan Korkmaz. Projections were all over the place for Korkmaz in the 2016 draft. Some had him as high as the lottery, but most had him falling in the early-to-mid 20’s. So the Sixers found a good amount of value with Korkmaz late in the first round of the 2016 draft.
It did take a while for Korkmaz to reach the heights of a very valuable contributor as a shooting guard/wing off the Sixers bench. But he’s found his groove to a greater degree over the last year and a half. And he should continue to get put to the test during the Sixers potential playoff run once the NBA takes the indefinite suspension off from the season on July 31.
In the season that is currently placed on pause, Korkmaz played in 64 games (starting in a career-best 12 of them). He averaged 9.7 points per game, 2.3 rebounds, 1.1 assists, and 0.6 steals. He shot 43.2 percent from the field, 39.7 percent from beyond the arc, and 73.6 percent from the charity stripe, good for an effective field goal percentage of 55.4.
While he is still improving in the advanced metrics department, they were still not great during the 2019-20 campaign. He registered a -1.5 box plus/minus rating, 0.2 value over replacement player rating, .079 win shares per 48 minutes, sky-high 61.7 three-point attempt rate, and a solid 57.1 true shooting percentage.
Korkmaz really is the type of player that is adapting his game fast and has a skill set that is well suited to the modern NBA. The Bulls could really use more wings like him on the current roster.
Another great example of the Sixers front office finding value in the NBA Draft to help their team reach the next level at a position of need is the draft night trade last year to get the former Washington Huskies 6-foot-5 and 200 pound standout defensive shooting guard Matisse Thybulle. Originally the 20th overall pick of the Boston Celtics in the 2019 draft, the Sixers pulled off a solid deal to get Thybulle to Philly.
The overall efficiency of Thybulle doesn’t necessarily show in the overarching advanced metrics. All-encompassing stats like player efficiency rating, real plus-minus rating, and box plus/minus rating, don’t tend to show the value that the Sixers get out of Thybulle. And that is the main argument that people tend to have against advanced metrics, is the lack in showing the true value of defensive stoppers.
Moreover, Thybulle played in 57 games during his rookie campaign (started in 13 of them). He averaged 4.7 points per game, 1.5 rebounds, 1.2 assists, and an impressive 1.4 steals, and 0.7 blocks. He shot 41.0 percent from the field, 35.2 percent from beyond the arc, and 61.0 percent from the charity stripe, good for an effective field goal percentage of 51.7.
That allowed Thybulle to post a box plus/minus rating of 0.1, 0.6 value over replacement player rating, 103 offensive rating/105 defensive rating, .084 win shares per 48 minutes, 3.5 percent steal rate, 3.1 percent block rate, and 53.0 true shooting percentage. Thybulle was truly great value to find for the Sixers and decent/improving shooting efficiency as his rookie season moved along showed the eventual two-way potential of Thybulle.
The no-brainer on this list, that was really hard to miss when Eversley was first brought aboard as an executive in the Sixers front office was picking the former LSU Tigers 6-foot-10 and 230 pound point forward Ben Simmons first overall in the 2016 NBA Draft. There was gradual improvement of Simmons, and a bit of a rocky chemistry formation with Embiid.
But Simmons is overall a promising face of the franchise for the Sixers, and likely the one they would keep around if they had to decide between trading him and Embiid. Granted that would be a difficult decision anyway you break it down.
Simmons took a while to make his debut, since he missed all of his original rookie season due to injury problems. But he really broke through during the 2017-18 campaign as he would win the Rookie of the Year honors. He’s also been an All-Star selection representing the East in each of the last two seasons.
In his roughly two and a half years playing with the Sixers, Simmons averaged 16.4 points per game, 8.3 rebounds, 8.0 assists, 1.7 steals, and 0.8 blocks. He shot 56.1 percent from the field, just 8.7 percent from beyond the arc, and 59.4 percent from the charity stripe, good for an effective field goal percentage of 56.2.
In the current season that is placed on hiatus, Simmons does lead the NBA in steals per game (2.1). He registered a box plus/minus rating of 3.7, .161 win shares per 48 minutes, 0.6 value over replacement player rating, and 62.5 true shooting percentage.
If the Bulls could get a No. 1 overall pick in the lottery this year, hopefully they could get a potential face of the franchise like the Sixers could be developing with Simmons.