Sixers have strong representation at NBA pre-draft workouts

The 76ers are doing their due diligence.

General manager Elton Brand and members of his front office are on the West Coast, attending agents-run NBA predraft workouts. They’ll be among NBA personnel at the Gary Durant Sports Management workout on Wednesday in Los Angeles.

Western Kentucky post player Charles Bassey will be the headliner. However, the 6-foot-10, 240-pound freshman could decide to return to college for another season. The deadline for early entry candidates to withdraw from the draft is 11:59 p.m. Wednesday.

Bassey will be one of many prospects the Sixers will have looked at over a three-day span. Like most NBA teams, they attended five predraft workouts in Southern California on Tuesday and two in Las Vegas on Monday.

The Sixers were at the Wasserman Media Group workout Tuesday morning. They followed that up by going to the Klutch Sports Group, the BDA Sports, the Roc Nation Sports and the Chris Johnson workouts.

That came one day after attending the Pensack Sports Management Group and Impact Sports Management workouts in Las Vegas.

The Sixers have the 24th-overall pick and four second-round selections, Nos. 33, 34, 44 and 54 in the June 20 NBA draft at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. However, they could opt to trade a second-round pick for cash consideration or move up in the first round.

Don’t be surprised if the Sixers select a wing player, especially with their first selection.

But, if still available, Tennessee power forward Grant Williams could be an intriguing candidate at No. 33. He participated in the BDA workout. While undersized at 6-7, Williams is a solid finisher around the basket. His 6-11 wingspan makes up for his lack of height.

Talen Horton-Tucker and Darius Bazley had solid performances at the Klutch workout, which was attended by Klutch client LeBron James.

Horton-Tucker could be this draft’s Zhaire Smith. The Sixers acquired Smith in last summer’s draft after he was selected 16th by the Phoenix Suns. While raw, the athletic Smith was an intriguing prospect.

Horton-Tucker is a 6-4, 235-pound freshman out of Iowa State with a 7-1 wingspan. A solid defender, he should be able to defend point guards, shooting guards and possibly small forwards in the NBA. However, he doesn’t have a defined position. The Chicago native doesn’t shoot the ball well enough to be a shooting guard and is too small to play small forward.

However, he’s athletic and explosive.

Bazley, a 6-9 forward, has more upside due to his athleticism and versatility. The 2018 Finneytown High School (Ohio) graduate accepted a three-month internship worth $1 million at New Balance instead of playing at Syracuse.

Virginia Tech guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Croatian forward Luka Samanic had solid performances at the Wasserman workout, according to sources.

Alexander-Walker, a 6-5 shooting guard, shot well from all spots on the floor. Meanwhile, Samanic was intriguing for a European prospect. He showed surprising athleticism and solid three-point range.

Terry Harris, a younger brother of Sixers forward Tobias Harris, participated in the Johnson workout. The 6-6 shooting guard out of North Carolina A&T is a solid shooter, who worked out with the Los Angeles Clippers last week.

P.J. Washington and Kevin Porter Jr. are the top draft prospects for Roc Nation.

Porter, a 6-5 shooting guard out of USC, is a good ballhandler and solid three-point shooter. While he needs to improve his shot selection, the 19-year-old could be an option for the Sixers at 24, if he’s still available. However, there are some concerns about his maturity and coachability. Washington, a 6-8 power forward from Kentucky, is projected to be a mid-to-late-first-round pick.

Meanwhile, Matt Lilly, the general manager of the Delaware Blue Coats, represented the Sixers at a workout for former NBA center Hasheem Thabeet on Saturday in Baltimore.

Thabeet competed in the free-agent portion of the workout. Trevon Duval, a two-way guard for Houston Rockets, also worked out. Stephen F. Austin guard Kevon Harris was the main attraction of Saturday’s workouts for NBA draft-eligible players. Nicholls State guard Gavin Peppers, Kansas State point guard Kamal Stokes and Texas A&M forward Christian Mekowulu were also on hand.

This workout was for NBA summer league and G-League candidates.

But this marked the second time since January the Sixers attended a Thabeet workout. Marc Eversley, the senior vice president of player personnel, watched him work out on Jan. 9 in the Washington, D.C. area.

The 32-year-old was selected second overall by the Memphis Grizzlies in the 2009 draft out of Connecticut. The Tanzanian went on to play five NBA seasons with four different teams — the Grizzlies, Houston Rockets, Portland Trail Blazers and Oklahoma City Thunder.

The Thunder traded him along with cash to the Sixers in return for a trade exception and a protected 2015 second-round pick, which never conveyed, on Aug. 26, 2014. Thabeet, who was waived on Sept. 1, 2014, never played for the Sixers.

He averaged 2.2 points, 2.7 rebounds and 10.5 minutes in 223 career games with 20 starts. Thabeet signed a contract with the Detroit Pistons 24 days later, but was waived on Oct. 20, 2014.

Elsewhere, Duval went undrafted last summer following his lone season at Duke. On July 24, he signed a two-way contract with the Milwaukee Bucks. The Bucks waived him on March 24 and the Houston Rockets claimed him two days later for the remainder of the season.