Sixers pick Vucevic surely awaiting a Collins hug

A SMALL STEP with an awfully big body. That's how you can describe last night's NBA draft for the 76ers as they weren't able to make a blockbuster trade (unlike the team with whom they share the Wells Fargo Center ) or a small one, instead standing pat with their pick at No. 16 and selecting 7-foot, 260-pound center Nikola Vucevic.

A 3-year player at Southern Cal, Vucevic averaged 17.1 points and 10.3 rebounds this past season for the Trojans, posting 22 double-doubles in his 34 games.

"We are incredibly thrilled to draft Nikola Vucevic," said coach Doug Collins. "I liked him from the moment I saw him at the Chicago predraft camp. He is a hard-working, skilled big man with a desire to succeed who gives us more size in the frontcourt, which is a need. He is a player that we are ecstatic to have on our roster and I look forward to coaching him."

In the second round, with the 50th pick in the draft, the Sixers plucked Temple's all-time leading rebounder Lavoy Allen.

Vucevic was among the many players the Sixers brought to their facilities for a predraft workout. At the time, Vucevic glowed about how much he liked Collins and laughed when asked about Jrue Holiday, whom he faced when both were freshmen (Holiday at UCLA).

He is a player who improved in each of his three seasons in the Pac-10, leading the conference in rebounding his last two seasons. He shot 50.5 percent from the floor and 75.5 percent from the foul line. He comes from basketball lineage, as his father Borislav played professionally for many years in Europe.

"The first thing he told me was that to become an NBA player I had to work as hard as anybody and to never take off, not to quit," Vucevic said in a conference call from Newark, N.J.

"He's got a great wingspan [7-4 1/2] and is a good shooter," said general manager Ed Stefanski. "He's a pick-and-pop kind of guy, a very high basketball IQ, which I think is extremely important to play for Doug Collins. He's a good passer, he has a pro type of game right now. He's only 20 years old, and an extremely hard worker. He's in love with Doug Collins and wanted to play for him."

And the Sixers wanted Vucevic. In a draft void of superstars and as unpredictable as a summer thunderstorm, the Sixers say they targeted the Montenegrin early on and hoped they would land him.