In Mike Gansey\u2019s first move as president of basketball operations, the Sixers took Alabama guard Labaron Philon with the 22nd pick in the first round of the 2026 NBA Draft Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The franchise selecting a small guard with the biggest asset acquired in the Jared McCain trade is likely to receive groans, but Philon represents excellent value. The 6-foot-2 guard was comfortably projected to be a top-20 pick by most draft experts. As a sophomore, The Mobile, Alabama native averaged 22.0 points, 5.0 assists and 1.2 steals in 30.9 minutes per game, earning First Team All-SEC honors and a Third Team All-American nod.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis improvement as an on-ball player this season while transitioning into that role could not have gone better, as he led the Alabama offense to a top-three mark in the country while putting up video-game-like numbers. The stats are certainly inflated by the spacing and pace of Alabama\u2019s offense, but Philon had a terrific season. His improvement as a finisher at the rim potentially changes his trajectory, making him a possible starting point guard if things break right.\u201d<\/p>\n
Philon was super efficient in 2025-26, shooting 50.1% from the field and just a tick under 40% on 6.2 attempts from deep per game. His usage rate also went from 20.9% to 30.0, making his efficiency all the more impressive. He\u2019s not the most explosive athlete, but he makes up for it with tremendous handles and his basketball IQ on both ends of the floor.<\/p>\n
While Philon probably doesn\u2019t have a path to being a starter here, he could carve out a role as a third guard behind Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe. A lack of competent primary ball-handler play off the bench was a sore spot for the Sixers in the postseason. Having a reliable third guard could also reduce the wear and tear on Maxey, who led the NBA in minutes.<\/p>\n
Philon said he had conversations with the Sixers\u2019 brass at this year\u2019s NBA combine.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say, just watching a lot of basketball, personally, I feel like being selected by Philly is just like destiny,\u201d Philon said to reporters over a Zoom call, \u201cbecause they got two great guards and I feel like I fit in with those guards, playing at that fast pace and that level of basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gansey cited the value Philon represented at pick 22, while also acknowledging the guard fits a need.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s got some toughness,\u201d Gansey said. \u201cI think he\u2019s going to fit Philly. He plays with an edge. He plays with a swag. He\u2019s not afraid. … He was a really good player the last two years and we\u2019re really excited to have him in Philly.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Mike Gansey\u2019s first move as president of basketball operations, the Sixers took Alabama guard Labaron Philon with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":722878,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[306913,88517,211940,99],"class_list":["post-722877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-sixers-nba-draft","tag-sixers-news","tag-sixers-roster","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=722877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/722878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=722877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=722877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=722877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}