What if the Philadelphia 76ers took Jayson Tatum No. 1?
How different would the NBA look if the Philadelphia 76ers drafted Jayson Tatum first overall in 2017 instead of Markelle Fultz?
When a butterfly flaps its wings, it causes a hurricane on the other side of the world.
For the next 10 days, the FanSided NBA Network is creating hurricanes with a massive re-do of the 2017 NBA Draft. Today, we wonder what would the NBA look like if the Philadelphia 76ers drafted Jayson Tatum instead of Markelle Fultz? The city of Philadelphia hasn’t red-yarned such a kettle of fish since trying to track down Pepe Silvia.
From that decision alone, about a fifth of the league would be vastly different from today’s version. If you subscribe to the multiverse theory, the results from one change in the draft would play out in countless iterations, all at the same time.
Time to let your imagination run untethered down the starry-eyed rabbit hole to what-if land. But before liftoff, let’s take inventory of where Philadelphia stood heading into that draft:
The 76ers ended the 2016-17 season with a 28-54 record, only finishing above the Brooklyn Nets in the East. They did, however, sow the seeds of future success. Their cornerstone players included Joel Embiid (averaged 20 and 8 in 25 minutes per night in 31 games after missing two seasons), Ben Simmons (the incumbent No. 1 pick coming off a lost year with a broken foot), Robert Covington and Dario Saric (#NBATwitter darlings and role player extraordinaires).
With consensus top pick Fultz looming, Philadelphia swung a deal with Boston to switch spots. He was, at the time, the perfect fit. He possessed a lethal combination of size, athleticism and shooting, coming off his lone college season where he canned 41.3 percent from beyond the arc on five attempts per game.
After years fogged by injuries and total confidence loss, it might be hard to remember scouts regarded Fultz as a can’t-miss prospect and an ideal player for the up-and-coming 76ers. Outlets described him as a cross between James Harden and D’Angelo Russell — a big, franchise-leading guard and future All-Star to build around.
This very website gushed over his potential and pegged him at No. 16 on the 25-under-25 list in 2017 before he even played a regular season game. Today, Fultz resides in Orlando as a reclamation project and has shown signs of his once abundant promise. Given what we know now, Tatum would have been the right choice, followed by a series of ripple effects. For the sake of word counts (and my own sanity), we’ll go with the most likely hypothetical scenario.
The alternate Tatum universe:
- Philadelphia 76ers: Jayson Tatum
- Los Angeles Lakers: Lonzo Ball
- Boston Celtics: Markelle Fultz
2017-18 was the year The Process finally came to fruition. After toiling and collecting assets, Philly shot out of a cannon into the playoffs as the 3-seed behind a 52-win campaign. That success came in spite of getting a question-shrouded 14 games of Fultz. Insert Rookie Tatum and the 76ers find their most dynamic scorer.
He probably starts the season off as a bench star slapping up 15 points a night until superseding Saric in their crunch-time lineup alongside Embiid, Simmons, Covington and J.J. Redick.
With a 19-year-old Tatum in tow, they beat the Celtics (who now lack Tatum’s bucket-getting prowess) in the Eastern Conference semis before losing to LeBron James‘s Cleveland Cavaliers in the conference finals.
The next season, general manager Elton Brand still makes the drive for star power and pulls the trigger on the Jimmy Butler trade, sending Covington and Saric to Minnesota. However, with Tatum blossoming and duplicitous skill-sets to Tobias Harris, he doesn’t replicate the deal with the LA Clippers. As a result, the 76ers hold onto Landry Shamet, Wilson Chandler, Mike Muscala two first-rounders and two second-rounders. Jerry West offloads Harris somewhere (the Knicks, probably), then makes his 4-D chess moves for Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.
Philly gets into the playoffs again as the 3-seed and its main rotation consists of Embiid, Simmons, Butler, Tatum, Redick, Shamet, James Ennis and Jonah Bolden. The Sixers lose to the eventual champion Toronto Raptors because Leonard goes full Terminator and could not be stopped.
Butler jets to Miami in the offseason, since nobody can control Jimmy Butler. Josh Richardson comes to Philly in exchange. By eschewing Harris’ massive deal with Tatum on his rookie contract, the 76ers re-sign Redick and roll it back with a fuller stock of assets. Brand absorbs Al Horford in free agency to bring over the veteran presence to steady the ship and numb the sting of Butler leaving.
And so the spider web sprawls. The Lakers stick with Lonzo Ball at No. 2. Not because he was a better prospect than Fultz, but because LaVar Ball spoke it into existence. You can’t outrun fate. He still centerpieces the Anthony Davis trade with Brandon Ingram, because again, you can’t outrun fate.
Boston takes Fultz at No. 3 and trades him to Orlando on draft night for Jonathan Isaac and the right to first-round draft swaps in 2020 and 2022. Under the graceful care of Brad Stevens, Isaac turns into the maven he eventually became, only much faster.
He fits seamlessly behind, next to, and as the successor to Horford. Isaac forms a three-headed defensive powerhouse alongside Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart. Tommy Heinsohn lovingly refers to it as the Cerberus lineup when the trio plays together. He says it’s the best defensive group of all-time.
Next. FanSided NBA Network 2017 Re-Draft. dark
While never ascending to superstardom with the Magic, Fultz doesn’t plummet into the abyss. He avoids both the ankle sprain suffered in NBA Summer League and the mysterious shoulder injury most likely caused/overlooked by Philadelphia’s phantom medical staff.
He forms a nice tandem with Nikola Vucevic and gives Orlando its best point guard since Penny Hardaway. Free of the burden of being the first overall pick on a franchise seen as one piece away, his career is lauded as a success instead of a bittersweet package of what-could-have-beens.