76ers Add Scoring, Shooting Backcourt Option With First-Round Steal Labaron Philon Jr.: ‘We Can’t Have Enough Guards’
NBA commissioner Adam Silver shakes hands with Labaron Philon Jr. after he is drafted twenty-second overall by the Philadelphia 76ers during Round One of the 2026 NBA Draft at Barclays Center on June 23, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Arturo Holmes/Getty Images)
New Philadelphia 76ers president of basketball operations Mike Gansey may have cooked with his first-ever draft pick.
Back in February, former 76ers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey shipped out one of the 76ers’ young up-and-coming guards, Jared McCain, in exchange for a 2026 first-round pick and three second-round picks. It was a surprising move then as the 76ers front office gave up one of their best young assets in exchange for a few second-round picks and a projected 20s lottery pick, but after trading their own draft pick to the Thunder in a trade from six years ago, they felt they needed to get involved in the draft.
The 2026 NBA Draft was projected to be stock-loaded with young talent, and Morey and co. felt it was the right move to deal McCain to OKC and gain future assets. Unfortunately for Morey, he wasn’t able to make this pick, and it now fell in the lap of Gansey and new general manager Jameer Nelson to help improve the 76ers squad.
While forward seems to be a bigger need as of right now for the 76ers, the new brass in Philadelphia elected to go best player available at pick 22, and boy, did they get a good one in guard Labaron Philon Jr.
Philon, a 6’3″ 176-pound sophomore guard, who is 20 (will be 21 when the new season begins) years old out of the University of Alabama. Philon was a dynamic scorer and shooter during his time with the Crimson Tide, averaging 22.0 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 5.0 assists per game, on 50.1/39.9/79.8 shooting during his second and final year in Tuscaloosa. Last season, Philon was the only Division 1 player to average 22 points and five assists a game on 50% field goal shooting or better.
In the postseason, Philon looked even better, helping lead Alabama to the Sweet 16, averaging 24.3 points, 7.7 assists, and 7.0 rebounds, before losing a tough battle to the eventual champions, the Michigan Wolverines. Philon is a gritty scorer who was posting these numbers not only against the nation’s best but also against his fellow top draft picks from this year’s class.
“He’s just dynamic, he can score, he can pass,” 76ers president of basketball operations Mike Gansey said Tuesday night on why Philon was so high on the 76ers board and what makes him fit for Philadelphia. “He had 35 on Michigan, probably one of the best defensive teams in the country in the tournament. He’s got some toughness, and I think he’s going to fit Philly. He plays with an edge, plays with the swag, he’s not afraid.”
Last season, the 76ers’ downfall in the playoffs was so clear and obvious that it was a concern all season long, and the team elected not to address it. It was because their bench scoring and shot-making from players not named Tyrese Maxey, Paul George, and Joel Embiid were so ineffective that teams took advantage of it when those players had to sit or if they went cold.
Quentin Grimes was seen as the best non-starting scorer for the 76ers, and in the postseason, averaging 6.7 points, shooting 39.7% from the field and 40% from three, going 14-for-35 from beyond the arc. In the 76ers’ final six playoff games, Grimes scored just 29 total points for a 26.7% field goal percentage.
It got so bad that there were multiple playoff games, consecutively as well, where Maxey was playing nearly every minute of action, and VJ Edgecombe, who was still a rookie, was playing 42+ minutes. Obviously, in the playoffs, your stars are going to have a bigger load, but playing these guys every other night for basically entire games wore them down and caused it to where, down the stretch, nobody could hit a shot to save their life.
Nobody was reliable enough in the backcourt to take a few minutes off their load and carry the offense while they sat and took needed rest. Games would get out of hand late, opposing teams (mainly the Knicks) took advantage and mounted comebacks or ran away with wins due to their ability to create open shots for their entire team.
The Knicks specifically were rolling out lineups with five to six guards who all shoot well from three, or create tons of open looks for their other stars, where the majority of the time, they were wide open. The 76ers had nowhere close to that much help, and it caused their starters to run on fumes as the playoffs wound down.
“You need as many guards as you can that can go create a shot,” Gansey said when asked whether or not a guard was really necessary for this 76ers team at the moment. “Tyrese was number one in minutes last year, VJ was up there as a rookie, I think fifth. This helps coach so that he doesn’t have to play those guys [so much]. We need depth at that guard position, and I think [Philon] can come in and play some minutes and take some of the load off those two. We can’t have enough guards.”
Now people will say playing three guards is almost impossible, especially when all of them are 6’4” or smaller and two of them aren’t great defenders, but in today’s league, offense runs the sport, and three guard lineups are more prominent than ever. While the 76ers haven’t been known to run that style of offense, the NBA waits for nobody, and trying sets and lineups like that to see what works can never be a bad thing.
“He’s obviously somebody that we feel can play right away. I think he’s talented enough to do that,” 76ers head coach Nick Nurse said of Philon and what he could do to help the 76ers guard woes. “I see him playing both of those [guard] positions. Those three guys [Maxey, Edgecombe and Philon] kind of share that position; I never would rule out going three guards and seeing what it looks like.”
Philon isn’t going to be a Day 1 starter that comes in and turns the league on its head with his incredible shooting and scoring. He’s likely going to be similar to Maxey in terms of finding his craft with scoring at the NBA level, and lucky for him, he won’t be relied on to score crazy amounts of points right away.
With the right system, teammates, and coaching, he can be willed to create a massive role on a 76ers team that is in win-now mode and ready to take the next step after making the second round this past year. The team still has a long way to go if they want to get to the top of the mountain, but gaining some offensive firepower is never a wrong decision, and the 76ers clearly accomplished that in their selection of Philon.
Matt Brown
Matt has been a Philadelphia sports fan all his life and spent four years at Penn State University majoring in Broadcast Journalism and minoring in Sports Studies. He previously covered Penn State’s field hockey, men’s and women’s basketball, and baseball teams while writing for a Penn State blog called Onward State. He has now covered the Phillies, Eagles, and Sixers for Philly Sports Reports since October 2024 and wants to pursue a career in Sports Journalism.
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