At his end-of-season press conference, Philadelphia 76ers president and general manager Bryan Colangelo compared Ben Simmons to Magic Johnson. The 6-foot-10 Simmons, who was selected first overall in the 2016 NBA Draft and missed the entire 2016-17 season because of a foot injury, is expected to play point guard for the 76ers next season.  

That's a lofty comparison, and you usually never want to place such high expectations on a 20-year-old. Johnson is arguably the best point guard in NBA history. If you're looking for stylistically similar players, though, there aren't a whole lot of other guys to point to. Simmons is a few inches taller than Shaun Livingston. Giannis Antetokounmpo sometimes plays point guard, but he doesn't always bring the ball up and sometimes plays center. If you start bringing up LeBron James, Draymond Green and Lamar Odom, then you're really talking about point forwards -- players who can initiate the offense, but played next to more traditional point guards for most of their careers. 

The obvious question here is what this kind of comment means for the future of the Sixers. They could have two picks near the top of the draft in June, and there's an amazing group of point guards available in this class. Colangelo implied that if they're drafting a lead guard to play with Simmons, it's important that he can shoot, but that doesn't mean the front office would shy away from someone who is a more "traditional" point guard and is used to having the ball in his hands:

Colangelo also said that he thinks Simmons can defend "most point guards in this league," per Derek Bodner, which is a hell of a statement about somebody who has never played an NBA game. It's especially interesting in light of what Philadelphia coach Brett Brown recently told The Vertical's Adrian Wojnarowski on a podcast:

"When the ball goes in a basket or whatever, when you look at young players, there's two or three people that always come back that want to be the point guard. He's done that his whole life. He wants the ball. And he has a complete passion to pass. And so if you just take those two qualities and forget how big he is, then you say, well the starting point is interesting if you want to try to say, well, you're a point guard. Because all of a sudden somebody else comes in and says, well, now he's 6-foot-10  -- it gives people pause. If we said he had these qualities and he was 6-4, you might not think too much about is he's a point guard or not. And so I feel that it would be not wise if we don't consider him to be that. And I'm committed to trying this. I think we all could walk back out of this, led by me, and say you know what, it's a challenge. But I am not going to backpedal quickly. When I say point guard, I mean point guard. Who takes the ball out of bounds? Who receives the ball when the ball goes in the basket? Who brings it up the floor after a free throw?

"I'm not talking about Draymond, I'm not talking about LeBron, I'm talking about a point guard. And so I intend on trying this. You always get into conversations — 'Well, that's fine, who does he guard?' I don't see him guarding the opposition's point guard. It could end up he guards who guards him, so you're not cross-matched in transition defense. Having said that, I expect that other teams aren't going to go put Chris Paul on Ben Simmons or Isaiah Thomas on Ben Simmons. And so I feel like it's going to be interesting, it is a challenge, it is ambitious, but my starting point is where I end up: he's got a quality that he wants the ball and he loves to pass. And so we're going to persevere and see where this plays out."

It's unclear how the Sixers will figure everything out on defense, and it's not worth analyzing that much until we see how the roster takes shape after the draft in free agency, so here's what you need to know: They intend to play Simmons at point guard next season. Brown has said this before, and it's something they should explore because of his mentality and the fact that, honestly, he's going to be way better on the ball than off it until his jump shot improves.

This does not, however, mean that Philadelphia won't be looking for a point guard in the draft. Championship teams have multiple creators, so a smaller, playmaking guard remains a need. If the Sixers' problem next season is that they have a guy their own team president compared to Magic freaking Johnson and a guy like Lonzo Ball, who has been compared to Jason Kidd, then that's not exactly a bad position to be in. The same goes for if they select Markelle Fultz, De'Aaron Fox, Frank Ntilikina and Dennis Smith.