Philadelphia 76ers: 5 options for pick No. 42 in 2019 NBA Draft

With the Philadelphia 76ers in dire need of inexpensive labor around their soon-to-be-paid stars, here are five prospects to look at with the 42nd overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft.

In order to avoid belaboring the obvious, let’s leave it at this: The Philadelphia 76ers need to hit on their draft picks.

For several consecutive seasons (mostly in the Bryan Colangelo era), the franchise botched selection after selection, failing to build up the bench it so desperately yearned for. Of the 14 players chosen by the Sixers between the 2015, 2016 and 2017 NBA Drafts, Philadelphia currently rosters two: Ben Simmons and Jonah Bolden.

Those misses add up; when the team consolidated assets for Jimmy Butler and Tobias Harris midseason, their already shallow bench got even thinner. By the second round of the playoffs, Philly was deploying a rotation of seven guys, with a motley of bad centers acting as the eighth man behind Joel Embiid.

Should the Sixers lose one of those crucial seven in free agency (five are set to hit the open market), even bigger needs will arise. Along with the glaring weakness that shows when Embiid sits, evidenced by the team’s Net Rating without him, there are holes up and down the roster.

As long as Philly holds onto the 42nd overall pick, it should be able to locate a competent bench piece. Here are five prospects to consider with the team’s fourth draft selection.