Melvin Ejim, Sean Kilpatrick and Aaron Craft to play for Philadelphia 76ers summer league team
Two rounds of the NBA Draft came and went without Sean Kilpatrick or Aaron Craft hearing their name called despite strong college careers at Cincinnati and Ohio State, respectively, but the pair will get a chance to pursue their NBA dreams with the Philadelphia 76ers after being invited to their summer league.
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Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders tweeted the news about Kilpatrick who was a second-team All American in 2014 with the Bearcats, but went undrafted. His age, 24, could have been the biggest deterrent for teams unwilling to spend a draft pick on Cincinnati’s second all-time leading scorer, trailing only the legendary Oscar Robertson.
He averaged 20.6 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game last season as a senior.
Kennedy also tweeted the news about Kraft who will also participate with the Golden State Warriors summer league team. The 6-2 guard averaged 9.8 points and 4.7 assists as a senior with the Buckeyes.
The headliner of the group may be Melvin Ejim who was the Big 12 Player of the Year last year over Andrew Wiggins and Joel Embiid who were taken with the first and third picks in the draft.
Ejim was also a second-team All-American like Kilpatrick and like Craft was an Academic All-American. The 6-8 forward scored a career-high 48 points in a win against TCU and averaged 18.1 point and 8.5 rebounds last year.
Tim Frazier, Scottie Wilbekin, Ed Daniel, Isaiah Sykes and Ronald Roberts, Jr. will also join the 76ers summer league team according to Kennedy.
General manager is taking a long-term approach to building his roster and if he can find a keeper out of the bunch, especially one of the big three in Ejim, Kilpatrick or Kraft, he will have another young building block for the future.