Ben Simmons or Brandon Ingram? Brandon Ingram or Ben Simmons?
That will be the talk of the Philadelphia hoops community over the coming weeks with the 76ers holding the prized first pick in the 2016 NBA Draft. The choice is all theirs.
Oddsmakers have already placed Australia and LSU's Ben Simmons as the early favorite to be selected by Brett Brown's bunch. But it's a tight race, according to Bovada, Simmons stands at 5/8 to go No. 1 while Ingram stands at 5/4 to go first overall.
And now we've already got our first report on who the Sixers' front office likes a touch more: Ben Simmons.
The report comes from veteran NBA reporter Kevin Ding who now writes for Bleacher Report following stints at the Miami Herald and Orange County Register.
Ding wrote this morning:
The Philadelphia 76ers are leaning heavily toward taking Simmons on June 23, according to league sources, with the No. 1 overall pick they landed in the NBA draft lottery Tuesday night.
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Ding points out that the Sixers will obviously investigate Ingram further. No decision is ever made this far out from the draft but "leaning heavily" is strong wording.
Simmons hailing from Australia and Brett Brown's obvious connections are mentioned. That is certainly not an indicator of who the Sixers will favor, but it is absolutely a positive in terms of the Sixers gathering as much information from Simmons' homeland as possible.
The ping pong balls have barely stopped bouncing and we're already speculating on who the Colangelo-led front office likes the most. It should be an exciting few weeks.
CSNPhilly.com's Sean Kane prefers Simmons at No. 1. Who do you prefer?
