With the 58th pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, the Philadelphia 76ers select:

This is not surprising. Reed was the clear frontrunner to win these awards following the G League’s abbreviated bubble campaign, which featured only 17 squads, plus a development team. The nine other franchises decided not to participate in this pandemic-influenced season.

Still, Reed had himself a fantastic run.

He played 15 games at 33.1 minutes per, scoring 22.3 points on average. He added 11.8 rebounds and 2.3 assists while logging close to two blocks and steals per game. He shot 44.4% from three and 58.8% from the field and just looked really capable on both ends of the floor. He was the best player on a Blue Coats team that went to the final.

When he was drafted, Reed was an unpolished product coming out of DePaul, but somebody who jumped off the page analytically and seemed to have all of the necessary physical tools to play in the NBA. Daryl Morey was excited to land him at #58 overall, and has spoken highly of him during his short time with the franchise.

He’s now with the Sixers since wrapping up the Blue Coats’ season, and even scored his first bucket a few games ago:

Good story for the Sixers, and for Reed. This is a superstar league, but drafting and developing is still important. If the team stumbles into a rotation player using a very late 2nd round draft pick, then that will be a cool story to tell in the coming years.