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Two years ago, on his first draft day as Sixers GM, Sam Hinkie drafted Michael Carter-Williams and traded for Nerlens Noel. Last year, he drafted Joel Embiid, traded the 10th pick (Elfrid Payton) for Dario Saric at 12, a second rounder in this draft, the Sixers’ own 2017 first round pick back, and made some moves with more minor second round picks. There’s no reason to believe he’ll be any less active this year. So here’s what we’ve been hearing so far:

  • On top of the supposedly passed-up Celtics offer, the Sixers are reportedly in talks to use their first two second rounders this year (and maybe something else) to move back into the first round at number 23. The Blazers — currently picking at 23 — may be trying to move out of the first-round’s guaranteed money in order to make a free agency move. Those two picks, by the way, were also brought in by Hinkie. The #35 pick is the second rounder that came over in the Saric deal, and the #37 pick came to the Sixers when Hinkie sent K.J. McDaniels to the Rockets.
  • And it’s not only getting back into the first round on the back-end that’s on Hinkie’s mind. According to Ken Berger of CBS Sports, D’Angelo Russell is the guy that the Sixers want, and they may be willing to jump up a spot to get him. “League sources say the Sixers want D’Angelo Russell and are willing to trade up from the No. 3 spot to get him,” Berger says. “It would create an interesting opportunity for the Lakers, who could still get Jahlil Okafor and extract a future pick in the process. Among others, the Sixers control the Lakers’ 2016 first-round pick, which is top-3 protected.” There’s very little in the past three years that leads me to believe that “league sources” actually know what’s going on in Hinkie’s office.

We’ll update this post here as more rumors are reported and debunked.