Furkan Korkmaz is coming overseas to visit Sixers, but not it's not what you think

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Furkan Korkmaz is coming to Philadelphia.

But it's not what you may think. Not yet, at least.

“He’s coming over to just visit with the staff, get in the gym, work out with us,” Sixers president of basketball operations Bryan Colangelo said Monday.
 
The Sixers selected Korkmaz with the 26th pick in the 2016 draft. He remained overseas last season and still is under contract with Anadolu Efes, who granted the Sixers permission for the trip.

Korkmaz has an interest in making the transition to the NBA. A hefty buyout remains a roadblock for the 19-year-old shooting guard.

“There’s still talk and he’s got a desire to come over this year, but I think all of that is still subject to discussion, negotiation,” Colangelo said. “There’s a buyout in his contract that will be somewhat restrictive with respect to him coming over given his draft slot and his slotted salary within the rookie scale.”

In addition to this trip, the Sixers would like to take a closer look at Korkmaz on their summer league roster in July. The Sixers will play in both Salt Lake City and Las Vegas.

“There’s an under-20 competition that I know the Turkish national team would like him to participate in,” Colangelo said. “We would like him to participate in summer league, so that’s another point of discussion that we’re having. That’s not completely off the table. … I think Furkan should be willing to participate in the national team activities. But I would rather see it with the senior team rather than the under-20 because I think he’ll get more out of that and that competition is later in the summer.”

The Sixers traveled to Europe this season to meet with him and watch him play. Now, they are interested in seeing him on an NBA court to get another sense of where he in his game. The Sixers also want Korkmaz to spend time getting to know the coaches and the players that are in town for offseason workouts.

“We want to instill as many ideas and things that are going to help him develop, whether he comes or not at this early stage of his development,” Colangelo said. “Getting with our strength-and-conditioning staff, performance staff and talking about ways to get better, bigger, stronger … He’s a good athlete, but he needs to put some weight on and get a little bit stronger.”

Korkmaz won the Best Young Player award at the Basketball Champions League (BCL) in May while on loan from Anadolu Efes to Banvit. He averaged 10.4 points (48.8 percent from three), 4.1 rebounds and 2.1 assists in BCL competition.

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