NBA Draft Rumors: Could Philadelphia 76ers draft Julius Randle?

On Thursday it was revealed that former Kentucky Wildcats’ power forward Julius Randle’s foot injury didn’t heal right and he may need surgery to correct the problem.

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Although Randle and his mother have denied the reports, his stock may still drop. That has fans of teams that pick outside of the top five and somewhere in the late lottery excited about the prospects of landing Randle.

Andrew Unterberger of The 700 Level speculates Randle could fall to the 76ers’ second selection, the 10th-overall pick in the first round.

"How is that possible? Well, first off, while Randle’s freshman year at Kentucky was undoubtedly a successful one–averages of 15 and 10 as a 19-year-old in a power conference is nothing to sneeze at, nor is being the best player on a team that came a couple minutes away from the NCAA championship–it did mostly take him out of the running for a top pick. The bruising power forward didn’t show the shooting range scouts hoped he would, he struggled a bit to score consistently against length in the post (and measured with a disconcertingly short wingspan), he didn’t display great defensive awareness and while he put up numbers, he didn’t quitedominate the way some scouts perhaps hoped."

Randle is ranked as the draft’s fourth-best prospect according by Jonathan Givony of Draft Express . Randle, who measured in at 6’9″ and 250 pounds with a wingspan of 7’0″ at the NBA’s Scouting Combine, put up 15.0 points, 10.4 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game while shooting 50.0% from the field and 70.6% from the charity stripe.

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