As we discussed on last night’s podcast (coming later today), Tuesday’s NBA Lottery might be the biggest single day for a franchise in this city in years (or, at least since last year’s draft lottery). The Sixers go in with a 26.9% chance of landing the top pick, and a 44.2% chance the Lakers pick conveys at number four or five. The people who study these things say that the Lakers pick being pushed to next year wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, since next year’s draft is supposed to be deeper (pick is still top-3 protected). But if the pick does come through this year, new man-in-charge Bryan “lil’ Bri” Colangelo says the Sixers would be open to parting ways with it.

At yesterday’s NBA Draft Combine, Colangelo talked about what the next step will be if they land that Lakers pick:

“It’s hard to put a number or a value on degree of aggressiveness, but we’ll certainly be open for business and listening to whatever is there. I think any time you have certain assets on the table in front of you, you need to determine what your best strategic move is, and some of that is yet to be determined. To what degree we’ll be aggressive, it’s too early to say.

I think you should always be a little proactive, just in determining what your best course of action is. You don’t want to leave anything on the table. If there was an opportunity to do something and you didn’t know that or realize it because you didn’t make a phone call then that’s your fault. But I think we’ll explore everything in every regard and that’s the good news about having the kind of flexibility and the number of assets that we have.

It really just comes from the conversation following the lottery results. That’s the one thing about the lottery. Once it’s completed we’ll know exactly what we have. Before anything else happens, that’s the first domino that’s got to fall. Tuesday’s a big day for us in a whole host of ways.”

It’s hard to know how to feel about this without having a grasp for what kind of moves Bryan would be trying to make. If Hinkie was saying this – knowing the record of the types of moves he made – you could at least form a strong opinion one way or the other. Bryan is a big question mark.

If he’s saying package the number four pick (for example) with the two later first round picks (or a bench body) for a role player/starter coming into his prime, I’m in. If he’s saying package that pick with another and a player (like Okafor) for an even bigger fish, I’m game. If we’re talking moving that pick for someone like DeMar DeRozan or – sweet Jesus please no – Evan Turner, I might have a goddamn heart attack.

Tuesday is going to be a very stressful day for Sixers fans and mourners of the Process, but the anxiety won’t end until the dust settles on draft night.