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10. The Kantrofarri

The Kantrofarri, better known as "dream crabs," are literally the stuff from your worst nightmares. These predatory creatures leap from the ceiling, wrap themselves around your face, and use telepathy to force you into a euphoric dream while they liquefy your brain for a snack. Yeesh!

They made their creepy debut in the 2014 Christmas special "Last Christmas" when The Doctor, Clara, and a gang of North Pole scientists are ambushed by what look like demon claws (and later saved by Santa Claus himself). 

Later on, Clara herself was facehugged and trapped in a trance. Though the Twelfth Doctor attempted to communicate to her sublimally, the allure of a fantasy world where Clara's dead boyfriend was alive proved to be too much for her. Determined to save her, the Doctor sacrifices himself to a dream crab to launch a rescue mission into her subconscious. But, just when they think they are able to break the spell, the group realizes that it's pretty tough to distinguish reality from fiction.

The Kantrofarri have a lot going for them in the monstrosity department. Their grotesque appearance, ability to prey on a person's subconscious and their wicked defense mechanism of dragging their victims into an Inception rabbit hole containing multiple layers of dreams -- all while they are eating their brain -- earns them a spot on this list.

9.  The Gelth

Sometimes, The Doctor has to make tough decisions, and all of the potential outcomes suck. Although he thinks he knows best, he makes an occasional mistake and inevitably makes the shittier decision. One example in the modern series of decisions gone horribly wrong came when Nine and Rose Tyler faced the Gelth. After the TARDIS "accidentally" landed them in 1869 Cardiff, the pair linked up with Charles Dickens, a funeral parlor owner named Gabriel Sneed, and his clairvoyant servant Gwyneth to solve a mystery. Together, they investigated a series of possessions that were turning corpses into the walking dead.

The Doctor used Gwyneth's powers to communicate with the unknown entities and discovered they were members of the Gelth, an alien race destroyed in the Time War. Their pleas for help allowed The Doctor to let his guilty conscience and (let's face it) ego get in the way, and so he agreed to open the rift in the basement of the funeral home. The Gelth would use the corpses as temporary vessels until they found a new planet, and innocent humans would stop getting murdered. Everyone ends up happy, right?

Of course, it was a dirty trick by the Gelth, who were much larger in number and ready to kill everyone on Earth so they could take over. Nine's decision led to the death of both Sneed and Gwyneth, who had volunteered to be a bridge for the race to cross over. Thankfully, that right old chap Charles Dickens helped draw the creatures out of the host bodies using gas, and Gwyneth blew them all to smithereens. But as far as terrifying villains go, alien-made zombies remain pretty unsettling. 

8. Cybermen

Second in longevity only to another species of exterminators, the Cybermen have been a pain in ass since the end of the First Doctor's era. The metal cyborgs from Mondas (a twin planet of Earth) have one thing on their mind -- assimilation. They are the shell of former human beings who have been stripped of their emotions and are on a mission to make every human just like them, just because they believe they are superior.

The Doctor has tried to get rid of them, but like these guys are like Twitter trolls: They keep coming back.  Cybermen are a ruthless clan who have done everything from being a catalyst for The Doctor's first regeneration to raising Clara Oswald's boyfriend Danny Pink from the dead, only to convert him and cause him to die again to save Earth. In other words, they are jerks.

7. The Foretold

Imagine sitting on a train when you suddenly see the lights flicker. At first, it doesn't bother you, but then you see a bandaged creature shuffling your way. You call out to other people around you, but no one can see what you are seeing. But, you can see it clearly -- a mummy creature is coming for you. What do you do? Whatever you decide, it's gotta be quick. You only have 66 seconds until you die.

The Foretold made its first and only appearance in the season 8 episode "Mummy on the Orient Express" and forced the Twelfth Doctor to work on a tight time schedule to discover what unseen force was dropping people like flies on a space train/laboratory. After using a few more passenger's deaths as case studies (much to Clara's dismay), Twelve eventually took on the time clock of a woman and discovered that the Foretold was a not a mummy, but a man of war. A victim of malfunctioning stealth technology, the Foretold endlessly continued his crusade by feeding on the mentally and emotionally weak. The Doctor was able to defeat him by "surrendering" to the Foretold, making him think the war is over.  but a foe who singles out the weak, approaches them ominously while invisible to others, and gives them a heart attack is still pretty damn scary.

6. The Silence

The Eleventh Doctor had the impossible task of trying to defeat this memory-wiping alien when he first encountered them during season 6 in the two-part story "The Impossible Astronaut"/"Day of the Moon." Known simply as the Silence, their looks alone are enough to make the toughest person shudder. With towering frames, giant heads, deep eye sockets, shriveled skin, and guttural voices (despite not having mouths most of the time), these otherworldly abominations are the last thing anyone wants to see shuffling towards them in the dark.

Of course, looks are only a small part of why they are so damn scary. The Silence have been running the Earth since the beginning of time, and were originally created by the Church of the Silence (Papal Mainframe) to allow people to confess their sins without remembering. Their memory wiping abilities allowed them to  manipulate events without consequence, since everyone who saw them would forget everything as soon as they looked away. The only catch: As soon as someone turns to look at them again, they'll remember everything.

Outside of scaring the hell out of a person multiple times, the Silence could harness electrical current to zap a victim into dust! Yikes. Not even their keen fashion sense can forgive The Silence from their most horrible deed: helping Madame Kovarian kidnap a baby River Song to warp the child into a Doctor-killing weapon. Not cool, guys. 

5. Vashta Nerada

Shadows are kind of spooky on their own, but flesh-eating shadows that can strip an organism down to a skeleton in seconds are on another level.  According to the Tenth Doctor, the shadow race known as the Vashta Nerada ("the shadows that melt the flesh") are everywhere, but remain harmless in small groups. But, when faced with a handful of people in an abandoned library, the Vashta Nerada became a carnivorous army who were protecting their forest (aka the paper in the books made from their tree homes) and devouring anything that dared step into the dark.

Ten, Donna and others were managed to stay out of the shadows for a time. Unforunately, they witnessed one crew member's haunting last thoughts, which were channeled through her spacesuit after she was attacked. Another poor sap started freaking out when he realized he had two shadows -- a clear sign of his impending death. The Vashta Nerada also led to the "death" of River Song, who at the time was still an enigma from the Doctor's future. If there's a "Save the Rainforest" analogy in here somewhere, it's lost in the terror of what are basically swarms of tiny invisible piranhas. 

4. The Beast

Perhaps one of the most pervasive foes of all-time, the Beast was awakened when a group of explorers decided to drill deep into a planet to study its impossible energy source. Rose and the Tenth Doctor saw an amicable slave race known as the Ood become possessed by this entity and warn them about the Beast awakening.

But, the possession of crewmate Toby makes the Beast an especially petrifying character. Toby's glowing red eyes and ancient black writing all over his body was only a preview of what was to come. In the subsequent episode, the Beast was revealed to The Doctor as the inspiration for the Devil in major religions. The Beast's fiery red skin, large horns, and sinful grin combined with his dark lair at the center of a planet wasn't enough to shake the Lord of Time, but the doer of evil did a pretty good job at giving the audience chills.

3. The Veil

According to Peter Capaldi's Doctor Who Extra interview, the Veil is giant, horrifying creature from the Doctor's subconscious. And, for a man who has seen some pretty horrible shit, that's a very, very bad thing. Twelve came in contact with the grey, cloaked, and fly-infested beast when he was still reeling from the loss of Clara Oswald. His newest enemy Me/Ashildr had not only played a game leading to Clara's death -- she had also saddled the Doctor with a teleportation device which forced him to spend his days in a constantly shifting castle surrounded by water filled with skulls of the dead. Very pleasant stuff....

The Veil's job was slowly stalking The Doctor throughout the castle and forcing him to admit his greatest fears. Eventually, The Doctor discovered that the only way to escape his situation was to go to room 12 in the castle and slowly punch away at an Azbantium wall until the Veil crept up and burned him with its touch. He was then forced to claw his way back to the teleporter chamber and start the process again -- which took well over 7,000 years to complete. Witnessing the constant psychological torture The Doctor faced in order to free himself was enough to sear the Veil in the memories of fans worldwide.

2. The Daleks & Davros

Remember how the Cybermen are the second most enduring pains in the Doctor's ass? Well, meet the first. Many people say that a hero's awesomeness is based on the villains he encounters and there is no foe quite like the Daleks. After being introduced in the 1963-64 serial "The Daleks", they were an unlikely hit with the fans. After all, who knew a few giant monsters resembling pepper shakers with a plunger and kitchen whisk for arms would turn into a marketing craze known as Dalekmania? Since then, the Daleks have become almost as legendary as the TARDIS and the Doctor himself for good reason. They have no desire to assimilate, stalk, torture, or scare anyone. All the Daleks want to do is kill every living thing that isn't a Dalek. No extra frills, just kills.

And, the Dalek's wickedness is further driven by their leader Davros. Actor Terry Molloy (Davros) himself chatted with Tai Gooden (that's me!) at (Re)Generation Who about Davros and the Daleks. He gave his own explanation for why these characters are perceived as evil:

"I think basically they are misunderstood. From Davros' point of view he is a really nice guy....no evil person actually thinks they are evil, that's caricature! They believe they are doing the right thing. When you look at them [the Daleks] they don't look creepy but they do have that power base of uncompromising obedience to command and they go forth and relentlessly destroy anything in their path. So perhaps that is why they are seen as scary.

The relationship between The Doctor and Davros is not guns and whistles, but rather the mental chess game they play against each other because they are both alone and on the same intellectual level. That is a fascinating basis of their relationship. You could say Davros is the dark side of The Doctor or The Doctor is what Davros could have been!"

 Molloy makes a pretty convincing case. Hopefully the Daleks will exterminate him last.

1. The Weeping Angels

Is there really any surprise about these un-angelic angels topping the list? Perhaps one of Steven Moffat's greatest contributions to the series, the Weeping Angels were introduced in the critically acclaimed Modern Who episode "Blink." Unlike many other foes, their first episode was both Doctor and companion-lite and featured a cast of new faces who were forced to tackle the scariest monster in Doctor Who history with little help from The Doctor.

A race with unclear beginnings, the Weeping Angels resemble winged Victorian angel statues typically found in church yards. But these villains are far from heavenly, as they swiftly sneak up on their prey each time the victim turns away, or even blinks. As they get closer, their faces twist into grotesque scowls as they touch their prey and send them back into the past to die slowly. The Angels then consume all of the future days they would have had and the victim simply disappears from their modern life.

The Weeping Angels evolved as time went on and started to project themselves through images and screens. After appearing during the Tenth Doctor's run and causing Sally Sparrow to lose her best friend and a love interest (whom she later watched die as an old man in present time), they made a return in the Eleventh Doctor's era and caused him great pain. During "Angels take Manhattan," companion Rory was sent back into past and Amy willingly followed, thereby breaking the Eleven's heart. Weeping Angels are the scariest thing that Doctor Who has ever faced, and should be at the top of all lists forever and ever. Amen.

Hit the decks

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In the pantheon of musical instruments totally incompatible with adrenaline-fueled pop punk, the ukulele has to rank near the top, alongside the glockenspiel, celesta, and krummhorn. No matter how vigorously a uke is strummed, it never really conveys urgency. So, on its face, an album of ukulele covers of Blink-182 songs would seem to be all wrong. And yet such a thing actually exists, and it’s charming as all hell. An Indianapolis outfit identifying itself as Blink 182kulele has posted the slight but winning 10-track collection entitled The Pineapple Above (Horse Around Rodeo Clown; Muscle To Jimmy Russia) to its Bandcamp page as a name-your-price download. The timing could not be better. This is clearly intended as warm weather music. While the lyrics and melodies from tracks like “What’s My Age Again?” and “Built This Pool” have been retained, the arrangements have been given a major overhaul ...

via

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This summer Dashboard Confessional and Taking Back Sunday, two bands synonymous with the emo boom of the early-to-mid ’00s, will tour together on the reactivated Taste Of Chaos tour. Although both were born out of the ’90s punk and hardcore scenes, they came to prominence as the word “emo” was becoming part of the mainstream consciousness, resulting in records that would nearly top the Billboard charts and playing venues as illustrious as Madison Square Garden. The price of that success was being the subject of great ridicule and now being viewed as mere nostalgia acts (though they’ve never stopped making new music). Despite the ups and downs, both bands have soldiered on, survivors in a scene that burned bright and caused many to flame out. The A.V. Club spoke to Dashboard Confessional’s Chris Carrabba and Taking Back Sunday’s Adam Lazzara about how they’ve weathered those ...

As the Warriors and Cavs prepare to do battle in the NBA Finals, the other 28 teams in the league are enjoying some time off. Some will spend it fishing, others will spend it with family and loved ones. Karl-Anthony Towns, the reigning Rookie of the Year, is streaming games on Twitch.

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Jeff Teague is not the sort of name Sixers brass should be targeting.

Jeff Teague is pretty good at basketball. It's worth getting that out of the way up front because it's sort of a shame he might have to be the first symbol of the "next era" of Sixers basketball. Acquired for the right price or at the right time in his career, a player like Teague would be a great fit alongside the Sixers cavalcade of young big men.

But the right price for Teague is not achievable in the long-term, and he is not in the right place in his career for the Sixers to acquire him. He is emblematic of the short-term thinking Sixers fans have been dying to get away from.

28 years old as of next week, Teague is old enough to be a stabilizing and impactful presence but too old to assume the mantle of next Sixers lead guard on a relevant team, assuming everything else breaks correctly. Optimistically, assuming the Sixers don't begin a fire sale of all their young players in order to COMPETE NOW, they are at least 4-5 years away from being a strong playoff team.

If it breaks that way -- and that's a massive assumption -- Jeff Teague will be 33 years old and commanding $25 million a year, conservatively, by the time that rolls around. To put it lightly, that is a terrible place to be as your (hopeful) stars are rounding into ass-kicking form. Maybe Ben Simmons has transformed into your point guard of the future, Destroyer of Worlds and Breaker of Chains, but it's more likely the Sixers will be faced with the prospect of trying to replace an aging guard while trying to build out from around his albatross salary.

The salary concerns are daunting. Teague is on a sweetheart deal for next season at just $8 million, but his impending free agency and the cap jump spell doom for the Sixers' checkbook. Overpaying is likely the only option available to keep Teague after next season because the present win-loss record of the team compared to other suitors is unlikely to be enticing enough to keep him in the fold at market value.

Trading for Teague requires thinking about these sort of concerns in advance, but I'm not sure that's the case here. Reports have surfaced the Sixers could also include Robert Covington and Nik Stauskas as part of the deal, which adds another layer of ineptitude to the world's crappiest onion.

Stauskas I could take or leave at this point, but Covington's inclusion would be utterly nonsensical; the same Hawks involved in this deal gave up a mid-first for TIM FREAKING HARDAWAY JR. as recently as last year. You would be paying a tax for the right to give up the youngest player with the most upside in the deal, in addition to paying the returning player above market value at the most loaded position in the league.

Speaking of how loaded that position is, take a gander at next year's draft class. The trajectory of high school guards can be volatile -- hello, Harrison twins -- but with names like De'Aron Fox, Lonzo Ball and Markelle Fultz looming on the horizon, now is quite possibly the worst time for a team firmly entrenched in the NBA lottery to pay a premium for an aging point guard.

The underlying philosophy behind such a move is unsound regardless of which key piece would be sent back the other way. Much as I prefer Jahlil Okafor to be moved in a trade for reasons I've elaborated on previously, trading him for a player like Teague is just as bad, if not worse.

Teague isn't an undervalued player in his mid-20s waiting to break out, but a decent player at the peak of his powers with no reasonable room left to grow. There's near-zero justification to make this trade. If you're trading for him just to rent him, you're getting horrendous value in the deal. If you're keeping him long-term and planning to pay him a boatload of cash, why not just overpay a stopgap this offseason without sacrificing valuable players as trade currency?

This is a move made by a salesman, not a basketball executive. It's a name to present to fans, cashing in on the luster of his singular All-Star appearance and a shared Player of the Month award. He's not a top-10 player at his position, and will only slide further down those rankings as he ages and new talent is injected into the league.

The fabric of this trade is a course correction of the first move made by the last regime. Jrue Holiday -- younger and with more tangible room for growth than Teague -- was sent packing in exchange for a chance at a star player. The exact same player received in that transaction, already showing signs of being an elite defender at the most important defensive spot in the sport, is now being shopped for a less promising version of Holiday. This is like the debate on Family Guy about whether to take a mystery box or a boat, only if the boat was 28 years old and service fees cost over 20 million dollars a year.

There is no positive to this rumor or related rumors unless something else of significant worth were to end up coming back the other way. Unless Jimmy Butler suddenly became a member of the Hawks, it's hard to see how these trade talks can be seen as a positive for Sixers fans hoping to escape the treadmill of mediocrity.

thepigeongazette:

;_; with her dying breath (battery)

stupidfuny:

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The blockbuster deal that Netflix and Disney reached all the way back in 2012 will soon take effect. Beginning in September, Netflix will be allowed to stream all Disney films — including Marvel, Pixar, and Lucasfilm titles — in the same window that they'd typically be made available to HBO, Starz, and other paid TV networks. That's still after the Blu-ray and digital releases, but it's much, much sooner than the long and often unpredictable wait that Netflix customers had to put up with before. All Disney films released theatrically in 2016 and beyond are included in the agreement, for which Netflix is reportedly paying hundreds of millions per year.

The Netflix/Disney exclusivity pact blocks subscription networks like HBO and Starz...

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You might have seen the "Roundabout" meme popping up here and there as of late. Though the meme originated months ago, it's enjoying a sudden surge in popularity. 

So... what the hell is it about? Well, it's a reference to JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, which would play the Yes song "Roundabout" during the end of the episode -- often during a cliffhanger -- leading into the credits. 

It sounds a little weird, but Roundabout can be applied to pretty much anything that has a cliffhanger. Like most any meme, it's pretty easy to place it in a variety of different contexts. 

1. For example, here it is in the cliffhanger ending of Walking Dead Season 6

2. The Roundabout meme can also be used to *insert* cliffhangers into scenes that don't normally have one. Like, say, Superbad

3. It also works extremely well for Dark Souls, since something is about to go wrong at all times in those games

pic.twitter.com/kL78oIiIxx

-- BrotherKolya (@ImperatorOfPuns) May 14, 2016

4. It's kind of hard to explain exactly why this is funny. It just is

5. It's insane how deep people are diving for this meme. Remember this twist from 2011's Mortal Kombat 9?

6. Or uh, this cartoon?

7. Even Overwatch fans have gotten in on it

8. According to KnowYourMeme, the earliest known use of Roundabout in this form was posted in January 2016

9. Dark Souls is probably still the best use-case for this meme

I LOVE THE ROUNDABOUT MEME pic.twitter.com/oKcK4OMn2F

-- Joelseph Joestar (@BooDooPerson) May 16, 2016

10. If you're still confused, don't worry -- you're not alone.

What a premium game means when you value playing with friends

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The LB staff weighs in with early thoughts on the primary debate we'll be having for the next month.

In the immediate aftermath of the NBA Draft Lottery, the Liberty Ballers staff jumped for joy and did little other than gush about finally winning something. Later that evening, I sent out an email with a simple premise to try to get a quick read of where our heads were at.

*Law and Order voice* these are our stories:

Kyle Neubeck: Ben Simmons or Brandon Ingram? Talk to me.

Sohil Doshi: It depends, which big man are we going to move?

Roy Burton: I need to sleep on this. I was #TeamIngram three hours ago, but now that the No. 1 pick is an actual, tangible thing, I don't know.

Jake Pavorsky: I can't put together words at the moment, everyone give it the night to think.

Marc Whittington: I am drunk. Thinking about roundtables is a joke. Good day, good sirs.

Jake Fischer: Just ate a burger at this weird late-night place around the corner from Pavorsky's apartment. But I still have a clear enough mind and stomach to say Ingram. Better fit and higher ceiling, in my opinion. Besides, who needs Simmons when you have THE HOMIE DARIO?

Justin F.: My head says Simmons.

My heart says Ingram.

My liver says I'm drunk.

Sean O'Connor: As the only sober one, I'm... reserving judgment (Draft Express videos are going on when I get home) but I'm still Team BPA.

Mike Baumann: I'm sober too. Apparently I spaced out my drinks such that I never got rowdy. This sucks. I want my money back.

Mike Levin: AHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Neubeck: I don't think I'm going to be able to come to a decision for a bit. Part of the beauty of having 1 and 4 was the idea of being able to draft a premium (more like premium-lite) compliment alongside your chosen star, e.g. a player like Jamal Murray that would work alongside Simmons, or a Kris Dunn in the event they took Ingram.

I know it sounds great to draft Simmons and then just "get shooters", but how many teams in the current climate are letting good shooters get away? At least ones with any *real* value that aren't defensive sieves or totally one-dimensional. It'd be great if we could walk into the orchard and just pluck three-and-D guys off a tree, but they're the most coveted players in basketball right now.

Trades are coming with the big guys and I'm sure they could get decent compliments back for them, I'm just much warier of building around Simmons than most.

Fischer: Those are great points, Kyle.

I just want to be on record with one more thing: Anyone who preferred No. 2 over the No. 1 pick is a coward. You'd rather not have to make that choice so you're not one day held accountable? That is so weak. Apparently many GMs told Chad Ford that was their preference. I really hope Bryan Colangelo was not one of them. If you don't have the balls to make the decision at No. 1, you shouldn't be an NBA executive at all.

Pavorsky: I think I want Ben Simmons, but truthfully, I might be happier with Brandon Ingram. Finding a fit for all the big men was such a pain in the ass last year, and adding Simmons plus Dario Saric to the fold would make things more annoying.

Simmons does have the added dimension of being a good enough passer/ball handler to play point guard, but I feel weird about playing him out of position just because we have so many big men. He's good at bringing the ball up in the half court and does have court vision, I just don't like the idea of having him as your full-time point guard.

Ingram fits an immediate need, and I think that's something the team is valuing this year, whether right or wrong. Brett Brown has mentioned it a little, and it just makes things easier for Colangelo because he didn't try to over complicate it. I don't really think he can go wrong either way.

At the end of the day I'll still take Simmons, but that's because I'm not against trying to move one of our bigs.

Whittington: Arguing for any player with the number one pick because he fits better is so, so naive. It's exactly the opposite of everything that this team spent the last three years striving for. If the team selects Ingram first, it better be because they think he's going to be the better player, and not because he allows them to hold onto Okafor or Noel for an extra 12 months.

The team needs to move a center, if not two of them. They can try to delay it as long as they want, but sooner or later, the rubber is going to meet the road and Colangelo's hand will be forced. That's not a reason to pass on a player who could legitimately be a perennial MVP candidate and provide the team with a uniquely destructive creative fulcrum to pair with its best big men.

You use the number one pick to select the player you deem to have the best chance of becoming a franchise-altering player, not to select a player who fits on a team that won 10 games. There's a case to be made that Ingram is a better prospect than Simmons. I don't agree with it, but the selection better be predicated on that belief, not a fear of getting too little value when you decide to move on from Okafor, Noel, or Saric.

Now that I've railed against the fit argument... I like Simmons.

Fischer: I think when evaluating the Sixers moves this offseason, you cannot think about adding and subtracting from a 10-win team. You have to factor in Joel Embiid and Dario Saric into the equation. And when Embiid is considered actually a part of this roster, I think it's perfectly fair to think of the player you take at No. 1's fit alongside him. And that opinion is absolutely derived from my wholehearted belief that Embiid will be a perennial MVP candidate, a cross between Andre Drummond and Karl-Anthony Towns. So do keep that in mind.

But fit also comes into play in Kyle's point. It's not as easily done than said to "just surround Simmons" with shooters. Allen Crabbe is about to command $15 million annually because he can maybe shoot consistently at 38 percent from three over the course of a full season while also defending. That context is really, really important surrounding Simmons.

I mostly lean towards Ingram because he's a legitimate alpha dog. Every single Duke player gushed about him. I was closely around him for four days during the first round of the NCAA Tournament. His dad is a gem of a blue-collar dude who actually missed traveling to the first round because he didn't want to take off work. On the contrary, there have been so many terrifying whispers about Simmons' personality. I can understand skipping the Combine, but why the hell do you not show up to the Lottery? What goes on upstairs is just as important as a player's skill set. Draymond Green is an excellent example of the positive. Kwame Brown is the other end of the spectrum. Simmons' intangibles scare me, man.

Max Rappaport: Have to agree with Marc here. I'd say that at this moment I'm probably leaning 65-35 toward Ben Simmons, but no matter which direction Colangelo and the Sixers go the decision has to be made with "best player available" top of mind.

Outside of a (hopefully) healthy Joel Embiid, nobody on this current roster matters more than Simmons or Ingram would, so I'm not making any decision at #1 with Okafor, Noel, Saric, Grant, etc. in mind. I think both Simmons and Ingram fit really well next to Embiid (honestly, who wouldn't?), so I'm not really concerned about that anyway. I'm hopeful that the Sixers will pick the player they think has the highest upside. Let's just hope they choose correctly.

Matt Carey: First off, let me state that I'm fine with either of them. Throw this back in my face when I'm slamming whoever the pick is next month.

When people talk about fit with Ingram, for me, the appeal isn't his ability to fit with this team as currently constructed, but rather the ability to fit with any team as constructed. If you pick Ingram, there's not really any limits to the type of players you can surround him with. You have a lot more margin for error.

With Simmons, you absolutely need certain types of players, and those players are above-average shooters at the 1-3 and a center who isn't a paint clogger. All of a sudden, every pick going forward you make has to be for fit because you can't pick guys who don't complement your star.

Now, if you think Simmons is more likely to be a top 5 player than Ingram by a significant margin, pick Simmons. You don't pass on a star because it might be tough to find a serviceable 2-guard some day. I think the margins are a lot closer than most, though. If you ask me today, I think I would pick Ingram because I think he's going to be great and as a bonus, he allows you to maximize the talent around him. I'm glad it's not my decision (which apparently qualifies me to be the general manager of several high-lottery teams).

I promise you, I will flip flop on this a million times between now and June 23. I'm going to be your least favorite politician, and by draft day, I will have talked myself into both and also convinced myself that both have irredeemable flaws.

Burton:God bless Brandon Ingram, but players of his ilk come around every so often. Conversely, Ben Simmons is a rare combination of size, athleticism and playmaking ability that is nearly impossible to pass up. Both players will have excellent careers and make multiple All-Star teams, but only one - Simmons - has the potential to be a franchise player.

I understand the concerns about fit, but drafting Ingram simply because he slots in nicely next to Okafor and Noel - two players the team isn't necessarily committed to, anyway - would be short-sighted. Simmons is already a fine complement to your current cornerstone (Joel Embiid), and if he ever develops a competent mid-range game, the Sixers could have one of the most talented frontlines in recent memory.

Neubeck: I'll close with this -- end of the day, I probably take Simmons. The risk of missing out on a potential superstar, difficult as fit might be on this team and any future permutations of it, outweighs my concern about his jumper. But if I was in Colangelo's position, there would be plenty of deliberation between now and the draft.