Emmanuel Mudiay is a wildcard for the Sixers at third overall

With the 2015 NBA Draft only nine days away, many teams across the league are still conducting pre-draft workouts. According to Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv, point guard Emmanuel Mudiay is set to workout for the Philadelphia 76ers today after meeting with the team’s brass on Monday.

Following last season’s trade of former rookie of the year Michael Carter-Williams, the Sixers have become in need of a point guard. When Carter-Williams was traded, the Sixers had a revolving door at point guard as Ish Smith, Isaiah Canaan, and JaKarr Sampson all saw time at point. Also, let’s not forget Tony Wroten who played point guard early in the season as Carter-Williams recovered from a shoulder injury.

But none of those guys are playmakers at the point guard position. Mudiay, on the other hand, is a playmaker and despite him playing in China this past year and not playing at SMU, the kid has talent.

Mudiay is a wildcard for the Sixers because general manager Sam Hinkie was the only GM to go to China and see him play according to a report from Jared Zwerling of Bleacher Report.

The point guard also received high-praised from SMU head coach Larry Brown. Brown said Mudiay is more a point guard and floor general than Ohio State guard D’Angelo Russell.

“Emmanuel is a point guard, I don’t think D’Angelo Russell is a point guard,” he said. “But I think D’Angelo Russell is a great player. He can pass the hell out of the ball, he can shoot it with range. I don’t think he’ll ever be the defender that Emmanuel is and I don’t think he’ll ever run a team the way Emmanuel does but he also doesn’t need to do that the way he plays.”

Brown does have a point as Russell is more a combo guard with fantastic skills, while Mudiay is going to be your guy running the offense and getting the team involved.

Now when it comes to possibly selecting Mudiay, Hinkie is thinking how his game will work with the Sixers. Let’s first start off with the measurables and stats. Mudiay is 6-foot-5 and 200 lbs and averaged 18.0 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 5.9 assists per game in only 12 games with Guangdong in China.

A few positives of Mudiay’s game that will work well with the Sixers is that he is strong, can get to the basket, works well in the pick and roll, and always looks for the open teammate to pass to.

The one positive that sticks out to me is him working well in the pick and roll because the Sixers have two big men in Nerlens Noel and Joel Embiid that would be a great compliment. In China, we even saw that the pick and roll worked well with him and Yi Jianlian against the Sichuan Blue Whales.

But there are some negatives that concern me about Mudiay’s game. One includes his tendency to not go straight up when going for rebounds.  Another negative of his game is that when he defending the pick and roll defense, he can get swallowed up, but that comes down to effort. On the other hand, when he is playing one on one defense, he has quickness and energy to make the necessary stop. You can see this via DraftExpress’ YouTube page as they highlighted Mudiay’s playoff games against Beijing and Stephon Marbury.

A lot of people believe that when the Sixers are on the clock, they will take the best player available which could be D’Angelo Russell, Kristaps Porzingis, or Mudiay. Either way, whoever the Sixers select with the third overall pick will be an impact player.