Before the 2025NBA Draft, we’ll take an in-depth look at different prospects here at Liberty Ballers and try to figure out which players would be the best fit for theSixers at Nos. 3 and 35. Next up in this series is Illinois’ Kasparas Jakucionis.
The third overall selection in this year’s NBA Draft comes with a boatload of options for the Philadelphia 76ers. Ace Bailey, V.J. Edgecombe and Tre Johnson are the most common names that get brought up as prospects for the team to select if they stay put and make a pick. Some would put Duke’s Kon Knueppel in that tier as well.
But with the Sixers almost certainly sending next year’s first-rounder to Oklahoma City, and potentially sending their 2028 first-rounder to Brooklyn which is top-eight protected, a trade down from three would allow Daryl Morey and his staff to restock the asset cupboard. In recent years, Brooklyn has traded away Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, James Harden and Mikal Bridges. The Nets have collected a ton of draft picks and might look to cash some of their chips in to move up to the third overall selection. At the very least, Philadelphia could reacquire its 2028 first-rounder from the Nets in order to move back five slots this year.
Houston holds the 10th pick and was just the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference. There might be enough players on Houston’s roster that Philadelphia is interested in adding for next season in an effort to return to contention that make moving back to 10 somewhat appealing. Then there are teams like Portland and Chicago at the end of the lottery that have been stuck on the fringes of the play-in tournament for quite a while. It’s the worst place to be in the NBA and if the Bulls and Trail Blazers are growing tired of landing there, they might be hungry to pay a hefty price to move up to third overall and acquire a player they would view as the next face of their franchise. As we were saying, there’s a lot of options Philly can explore with the third overall selection.
If Philly does opt to trade down, we want to familiarize you with a few more names that you might not currently be thinking of. Kasparas Jakucionis out of Illinois is a prospect that is commonly mocked to teams in the back half of the top 10 that it may target.
Profile
2024-25 Stats: 33 games, 31.8 minutes, 15.0 points, 5.7 rebounds, 4.7 assists, 0.9 steals, 0.3 blocks, 44.0 FG%, 31.8 3P%, 84.5 FT%
Team: Illinois
Year: Freshman
Position: G
Height and Weight: 6’6.0” (in shoes) and 205 lbs
Born: May 29, 2006 (19 years old next week)
Hometown: Vilnius, Lithuania
Strengths
Will Rucker dove into his fit with Philly at the beginning of the month. It’s well documented that the Sixers have a surplus of guards, with Tyrese Maxey, Jared McCain and almost certainly Quentin Grimes once he returns from restricted free agency, on next year’s roster. But a strong argument can be made that none of those three guards are the passer Jakucionis is.
When you couple Jakucionis’s passing ability with his three-level scoring ability, you get a rather intriguing prospect that could thrive in pick-and-rolls with Joel Embiid. For most of the college season, Jakucionis was mocked higher than he is currently being mocked as it seems like Knueppel and Oklahoma’s Jeremiah Fears made late-season rises up draft boards and Jakucionis became the odd man out in the top 5-6 picks in the eyes of many mock drafters.
From a shooting standpoint, Jakucionis always shot high free throw percentages even before his one year at Illinois which should give scouts reason to believe his three-point shooting will improve in time. There do not appear to be any major mechanical flaws with his jumper. If he became a Sixer, Jakucinois could certainly endear himself to the Philly faithful quickly as he’s always been known to make a lot of hustle plays and play hard.
Weaknesses
Jakucionis does come with some red flags on defense which might be enough for the Sixers to look elsewhere next month. He’s not the strongest guard for someone standing at 6-foot-6 nor is he the fastest which means that bigger guards are often able to outmuscle him and smaller guards are going to be able to blow by him.
We mentioned his stock seemed to dip a bit as the college season wore on, and while other prospects made late-season surges, Jakucionis did have some spotty performances late in the college season and it seems like there are questions about his consistency and if his strengths will show up on a nightly basis in the NBA. His playmaking ability as a passer is also a bit of a double-edged sword at the moment as he could get a little turnover happy at times. Despite averaging nearly five assists per game, he also turned the ball over nearly four times per game which is certainly a tick high.
Potential Fit with the Sixers
It’s going to be up to Morey and the rest of the Sixers’ front office to decide if Jakucionis can fit in with the team’s current mix of guards or if the backcourt would become too crowded. Not only could Jakucionis thrive in various offensive sets with Embiid, but his passing ability should be able to generate a lot of looks for McCain and Grimes. The problem is, how often would he be on the court with even one of these guards? With Maxey seemingly a lock to play 35 minutes a night when healthy there might not be enough playing time to go around. It might take Morey having to convince Nurse, a coach who has long been known to play his starters lots of minutes, to mix and match a little more in the backcourt which could involve a reduction in minutes for Maxey.
If the Sixers fall in love with his playmaking ability, they might take him anyway. Having too many talented guards would certainly be a good problem to have. It’s also important to remember that for as good as he looked last year, we only saw McCain play 23 games in his rookie season. Grimes only played 28 games for the Sixers after being traded and could have been doing at least a little bit of stat padding as the losses and injuries piled up for Philadelphia.
Regardless of how much injury bad luck the Sixers had last year, it’s a mistake for any team drafting in the lottery to fall in love with its current roster too much. Philadelphia must evaluate these prospects as if it has a blank roster. If Morey and company don’t like any of the popular targets at three, but do like Jakucionis, trading down for either a roster player from another team or future considerations while adding Jakucionis is intriguing to say the least. There are some things the Lithuanian needs to work on, but he seems ready to contribute immediately offensively.
Draft Projection
SB Nation Mock Draft: No. 10, Houston Rockets
We mentioned Houston as an intriguing trade-down partner with the Sixers for a reason. Jakucionis seems to be going in the back end of the lottery and trading with Houston could allow the Sixers to add a player off Houston’s roster that helps them return to contention next season while also drafting a prospect they like.
If Jakucionis does land with the Rockets, it would be a pretty nice spot for him. Fred VanVleet is entering a contract year in Houston and would be a good mentor for the Lithuanian and the future fit for Jakucionis to be able to set up young shooters like Jalen Green and Reed Shepard would be nice.