{"id":753426,"date":"2026-06-05T20:57:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T20:57:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/753426\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T20:57:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T20:57:20","slug":"2026-nba-mock-draft-sixers-select-houston-big-man-chris-cenac-jr-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/753426\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 NBA mock draft: Sixers select Houston big man Chris Cenac Jr."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a data-ylk=\"elm:icon;slk:Sixers Wire;\" href=\"https:\/\/sixerswire.usatoday.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img alt=\"Sixers Wire\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"204\" height=\"40\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"pr-2.5 max-w-[150px] max-h-[40px] min-[601px]:max-w-[115px]\" style=\"color:transparent;max-width:auto;max-height:100%\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/os\/creatr-uploaded-images\/2020-12\/0a500d50-3418-11eb-bfef-b3a1d33ec199.jpeg\"\/><\/a>Fri, June 5, 2026 at 6:02 PM UTC<img alt=\"\" fetchpriority=\"high\" width=\"976\" height=\"565\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img w-full w-full h-auto\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/aol_sixers_wire_592\/e10a2ab64db27349faef944df7569517.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>2026 NBA mock draft: Sixers select Houston big man Chris Cenac Jr.<\/p>\n<p>The <a data-ylk=\"slk:Philadelphia 76ers;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/basketball\/nba\/teams\/philadelphia-76ers\/20\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Philadelphia 76ers<\/a> are now prepared to head into the offseason as they are led by new President of Basketball Operations Mike Gansey. The Sixers made the hire official on Thursday and he will now lead Philadelphia&#8217;s front office into its next era.<\/p>\n<p>The Sixers do hold the No. 22 pick due to the trade made by Gansey&#8217;s predecessor, Daryl Morey, at the deadline. Philadelphia sent Jared McCain to the <a data-ylk=\"slk:Oklahoma City Thunder;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/basketball\/nba\/teams\/oklahoma-city-thunder\/25\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> for and acquired a first-round pick via the <a data-ylk=\"slk:Houston Rockets;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/basketball\/nba\/teams\/houston-rockets\/10\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Houston Rockets<\/a> in the process.<\/p>\n<p>A <a data-ylk=\"slk:mock draft performed by Yahoo! Sports;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/nba\/draft\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">mock draft performed by Yahoo! Sports<\/a> has the Sixers selecting Houston big man Chris Cenac Jr. with that selection:<\/p>\n<p>Finding a center to play behind Joel Embiid needs to be prioritized. Embiid simply cannot be trusted to stay on the floor. Cenac checks every box on paper as a superb athlete who moves like a wing, has the length to alter shots, and shoots from the perimeter. Houston handed him a starting role with national title aspirations and trusted him with heavy minutes. But the Cougars fell short again, in part because Cenac struggled to stay out of foul trouble, couldn&#8217;t score efficiently, and was overeager to play on the perimeter despite having the body of a bruiser. He arrived in college with lottery expectations, and he still could become that player in the future. But the NBA team drafting him is taking a project.<\/p>\n<p>Cenac averaged 9.5 points and 7.9 rebounds in the 2025-26 season with the Cougars and will be looking to carry that type of athleticism and rebounding skill to the next level. The Sixers certainly need to fortify the bench unit and could use another backup big man at this stage of their quest toward winning a championship. Joel Embiid is phenomenal, but the big fella has had issues staying on the floor so the Sixers should look into Cenac on draft night.<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on Sixers Wire: <a data-ylk=\"slk:2026 NBA mock draft: Sixers select Houston big man Chris Cenac Jr.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/sixerswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nba\/sixers\/2026\/06\/05\/2026-nba-mock-draft-sixers-select-houston-big-man-chris-cenac-jr\/90418407007\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">2026 NBA mock draft: Sixers select Houston big man Chris Cenac Jr.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fri, June 5, 2026 at 6:02 PM UTC 2026 NBA mock draft: Sixers select Houston big man Chris&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":753427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3795],"tags":[7,43517,1332,294,194,1255,936,293,177,4070,9736,6,179,678,207],"class_list":["post-753426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-memphis-grizzlies","tag-basketball","tag-chris-cenac-jr","tag-daryl-morey","tag-grizzlies","tag-houston-rockets","tag-jared-mccain","tag-joel-embiid","tag-memphis","tag-memphis-grizzlies","tag-memphisgrizzlies","tag-mike-gansey","tag-nba","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-76ers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116699506045350924","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=753426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/753427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=753426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=753426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=753426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}