The Sixers played another game in the seemingly never-ending NBA Summer League last night. They played the Cavs, that little team from Cleveland that just drafted Andrew Wiggins and signed LeBron James. Perhaps of them you’ve heard.

Anyway, Andrew Wiggins. OMFBG ANDREW WIGGINS:

That’s disgusting. There’s a courtside view – a Vine – after the jump. And this comes just a day after Wiggins pulled off a stupid 360 in warmups. I’m going to feel bad about the lottery for a long time. Continue Reading

I refuse to believe this. Not that Dei reported it. But I refuse to believe that Sam Hinkie would trade his top three draft picks to move up two spots. That, or he’s so in love with Wiggins that he will do anything… for that love. But I wouldn’t do that, Sam. No, I wouldn’t do that.

Vamonos, Hinkie! Vamonos!

I have no idea what that even means or if it’s offensive, but it fit the picture. I think.

UPDATE: Ohhhhhhhh it has glasses, too. It has glasses. Continue Reading

Local guy and ESPN contributor Tom Sunnergren writes about how the Sixers have been Waiting For Wiggins:

But Philadelphia’s interest in the forward — on the level of the organization as well as the fanbase — has proved resilient. Even before the Embiid injury, there were reports the Sixers were willing to trade up to No. 1 to take Wiggins — packaging their No. 3 pick with either Thaddeus Young or the the No. 10 selection to make the deal — and those have persisted. Wiggins was, and remains, their top target.

Everybody loves Wiggins, but nobody loves him quite like the Sixers do. There’s a logic to this attraction that’s at once both sentimental and rational. Wiggins is, in many ways, a perfect fit in Philly. A marriage of left- and right-brained thinking.

It goes without saying, but it bears repeating, that the NBA is a superstars’ league. Championships, more often than not, are determined by the rare handful of genetic mutants who can dominate the game on both ends of the floor. LeBron James. Tim Duncan. Shaquille O’Neal. For a franchise that defines success in binary terms — you either win the title or don’t — and is absent a star, the only way to build a roster is to select the prospects who have the best chance of developing into this kind of force. By most reckonings, there are two players in this draft class with that possibility. One is Andrew Wiggins. The other just suffered the same injury that derailed the careers of Bill Walton and Yao Ming.

Agreed. I don’t think you tank an entire season for a solid potential All-Star (Parker or Exum) or for a guy with serious injury concerns (Embiid). You tank an entire season for a potential superstar. Wiggins, at 19, is a potential superstar, whose supposed flaws are many of the same supposed flaws people saw in Kevin Durant, and that’s worked out pretty well.

Wiggins has been the Sixers’ target for a year and he belongs with them, with you, with us… with me.

Granted, he’s being defended by a six-foot white guy with a receding hairline… but still, mmm. It’s like watching one of those Playboy YouTube videos that contains no nudity but you know it’s there. Know it exists. Know it’s only a Google search or trade-up-on-draft-night away.

Meanwhile, the Sixers have been given access to Joel Embiid’s medical records, which I can only assume are written on elephant hide. So they’re probably going to draft another big man with an alarming injury history. But Wiggins needs to happen. Wiggins and LeBron and Melo this summer– then I’ll be happy.

And no, Wiggins isn’t a suspect in that stabbing.

Side note: Why is it only basketball players who have mixtapes? How cool would a hockey mixtape be with a frighteningly pale 17-year-old Eastern Bloc forward skating through pylons to Du hast? I want to see that.

H/T to reader Paul