Daryl Morey makes it clear: the Sixers will draft for best player available

There's a 36-percent chance that the reward for this disastrous Sixers season gets kicked down the road like a can.

There's a 64-percent chance that the Sixers have the opportunity to add one of the six best prospects in the 2025 NBA draft, potentially creating a bridge that unifies the present-day team with the future of the franchise.

No pressure.

In his end-of-season interview on Sunday, Daryl Morey made it clear that there would be no getting cute with the team's draft philosophy.

"Yeah, definitely best player available. It has to be, that high in the draft, for sure. But we see the pick as sort of a tool to upgrade the team. And obviously it'll matter if it's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or we just have the pick in the future could also happen," Morey told reporters.

"So it's just a tool to make the team better. But obviously there's a good chance we'll take someone. In that case, it will just be the best player. I've never shied from that."

That stance is not exactly infringing upon 'hot take' territory, especially for a team that just went 24-58. 

The good thing about this draft, specifically at the top two picks, is that best fit and best player available overlap. Both Cooper Flagg and Dylan Harper are so dynamically gifted that they plug multiple holes at once.

But the Sixers have just a 42.1-percent chance of landing in the top four of the lottery. They have just a 10.5-percent chance of landing the top pick, per Tankathon.

They'd be rather fortunate to just keep their pick in this draft, let alone jump multiple teams that finished with worse records than they did.

No matter where they land, if they place in the top six, there is no mystery to their approach. The only question is who they have as the best guy on their board when it comes time to make the selection.