Sixers look to toughen up with 23rd pick in draft

With an achievement gap to close, some personnel decisions to consider and one low-value first-round choice to use however it best works, Daryl Morey will head into his second NBA Draft with the Sixers Thursday night.

Already having been willing to hand the No. 23 overall pick off to Brooklyn in the February trade for James Harden, the Nets used an option to defer to flip it back to the Sixers. Known for his creativity and aggression, it is fully expected that Morey will somehow wrap the pick in a package with other players in a play for the present, not the future.

If that doesn’t happen, the

Sixers’ basketball-operations president is expected to enjoy some interesting choices should he be on the clock at No. 23. Among them could be E.J. Liddell, a power forward who played three seasons at Ohio State and has been extremely under-valued by most draft handicappers. Perfect to complete a front line including Joel Embiid and Tobias Harris, the 6-7 Liddell plays with the kind of edge Embiid — among others — publicly requested the Sixers add at the end of another disappointing postseason.

Liddell, however, is only 21, and the Sixers are widely known to be readying a threeyear deal for Miami Heat instigator P.J. Tucker, 37, when free agency begins June 30. To free