The Sixers are parsing the trade market for reinforcements who can shoot the ball. According to Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer, Philadelphia has expressed interest in several role players, including Malik Beasley, Glenn Robinson III, Davis Bertans, E’Twaun Moore, and Andre Iguodala. O’Connor adds that the team has also inquired on Robert Covington, whom the team dealt away in the Jimmy Butler deal last season.
Most of those names, including Covington, are truly available. The price for Minnesota’s wing is expected to be high and with Philadelphia void of shiny assets, GM Elton Brand will have to get creative if he is going to bring back Sam Hinkie’s former gem.
Zhaire Smith is the young prospect the team is most willing to part with. Rivals teams have more interest in Matisse Thybulle, though Philadelphia is reluctant to deal the No. 20 overall pick. The franchise owns all of its own draft picks starting in the 2021 draft, so the Sixers could attempt to sweeten any deal with a future asset.
Other names on that list could be more obtainable than RoCo. It’ll be tough to pry Bertans from Washington, as the team can envision him as a long-term piece, but Iguodala, Moore, and Robinson are in obvious selling situations. Denver won’t be a seller at the trade deadline, but with a deep rotation and Beasley’s impending restricted free agency, the franchise is smartly assessing the market for the shooting guard.
Here’s more on Philadelphia.
- O’Connor contends that the Sixers should consider making a bigger move for Chris Paul, swapping either Tobias Harris or Al Horford and additional salary for the 34-year-old point guard. However, the scribe hears that Harris and Horford, each of whom signed long-term deals this offseason, aren’t any more tradeable than CP3.
- Trading Simmons doesn’t appear likely, in part because it would mean “putting all your superstar eggs in the Embiid basket,” and the big man has had a shaky injury history. O’ Connor wonders if Simmons would be the one the team decides to build around if forced to choose between the two.
- Big changes will likely come with an early exit in the playoffs, though many around the game believe it would be Brett Brown who takes the fall in that scenario. There were rumblings that former team president Bryan Colangelo was planning to fire Brown and replace him with Villanova coach Jay Wright, but that was before Twittergate. Still, O’Connor hears from multiple sources that Brown didn’t have the best relationship with the locker room last season.
Sixers are on the verge of imploding, it seems. I spelled this out in a previous post:
Hang your future on underachieving, oft injured Joel, hoping the clogged lane is why he’s underachieving, or on Antetokounmpolite Ben Simmons and be a second rate Bucks team…
Whatever is going on at the moment isn’t working…
To be going back and sniffing around old players like RoCo seems a bit directionless.
All goes back to colangelo ruining the team. Hinkie’s plan was working, Brand’s done what he could. Colangelo was, is, and forever will be trash.
Sixers desperately need a true PG.
If they were to trade Simmons and build around Embid what would that look like? Shooters? 3 and D wings? Ball handlers? They haven’t planned that, whereas they know with Simmons he’s an excellent driver and needs shooters, they already have an Embid replacement in Horford so it’s really a let’s see how it finishes situation.
Another indicator is look at who they are rumoured to want to sign. Beasley, RoCo, Bertans these guys are shooters which would suit Simmons. I think if they were planning to build around Embid they would’ve kept Butler over Harris and be targeting defensively stronger guys than can play a role. Build around a strong defence with Embid and Butler, then look at guys like Harrison Barnes, RoCo, Thad Young, maybe Derrick Favours. PG wouldn’t be an issue cause Butler and Embid would be getting all the touches but that’s not the direction they are moving in.
I think if they were to trade Embid it should be for a good shooter. I’d be looking at Devin Booker, Buddy Heild, CJ McCollum, Bradley Beal and Jayson Tatum.
Of those guys RIGHT NOW only Heild would probably be available cause the other players are to valuable. Not that it would happen but you could do Embid and Smith for Heild, Ariza and 2 first. Think both teams would be happy with that but I think in an ideal world Booker or Tatum would be the return in an Embid trade.
Maybe in the off-season,
Embid and JRich for Booker and Oubre plus a first.
Or, Embid for Tatum (sign and trade) plus a first.
Would love the Tatum trade Simmons Tatum Harris would be awesome, Embid definitely fixed the big man issues Boston has had. Alternatively Booker would be a more natural shooter for Simmons and that would also be great. Embid would be a fresh start for Phoenix and would give them its best big in a very long time.
They’ll be fine, everyone calm down
If they traded Embiid I may have to give up on being a Sixer fan for a while.
Simmons keeps things under the vest, or under the table, or (ha) just comes from down under. I think he has made demands and just doesn’t talk about it, making it tougher on outsiders to talk about it.
Maybe he’s more comfortable with an Australian flow to the game if there’s such a thing.
Anyway I doubt he would tolerate CP3, behind the scenes.
But the Sixers need more than a passive distance shooter who will fulfill the duty of hitting the game-winning shot– which is more of a dream.
They need a plan C guy like Burks. Burks peaked in 2014 but is shooting well, has PER of 17, and is cheap– no need for a ridiculous plan like giving up Thybulle or getting Covington.
I know it likely doesn’t happen but looking at free agency.
Maybe Ben Simmons can weave some magic and convince Patty Mills to join him in Philly. Both players are Aussie and Mills would be perfect off the bench behind Simmons, can shoot the 3 ball well and can hit game winners. But doubt he leaves coach Pop
The other ideal FA signing would be Marcus Morris.
He’s born in Philly so maybe the move home to end his career would make him happy. He would be great for the defence and as a 6th man to plan either the 3 or 4 spot. He can also stretch the floor a little.
Having a second unit with say Mills Thybulle Morris and some other minimum vets would be pretty good
I find it hard to believe that there’s no market for Harris or Horford.
The market might not be strong (and it shouldn’t be, considering how Philly seems desperate), but I gotta think both of those guys could be moved quickly if Philly wanted to get off the contracts.
So maybe not “no market” so much as “not many good offers,” which is completely different.
Harris isn’t up for grabs he’s ballin.
He’s averaging 19.5/6.5/3, while shooting 48% from the floor, 36% from deep and 80% at the line.
Think he’s a perfect sidekick for Simmons cause he can play on ball or off ball, and isn’t a liability on defence. Is improving also as a clutch shooter
80% from the line from an NBA player is a joke. Ballin’? More like crawl in’
Marcus Smart and Jaylen Brown both shoot under 80% at the Free throw line …
The NBA average for FT’s is 75% so Harris is shooting at a good clip
They’re both old and grossly overcompensated. 76ers have three halfway decent players. They might make the 8th seed. They either miss playoffs altogether or one-&-done
You’re said this all year but we have beaten your team 3-0 and have the same amount of wins as you. Yes Harris and Horford are overpaid but so is Hayward and Brown. Horford is old, Harris is only 27, Kemba and Hayward are both 29…
Next they’ll be asking for saric, Noel, shamet, and jahlil back. That’s why you don’t change gms three times during the middle of rebuilding. The sixers are still top 2 in the east because Embiid is dominant. Colangelo and Brand are garbage.
Of those guys if we really wanted we could sign Noel, Saric and Okafor this offseason as they are free agents. Of those guys only Shamet is any good.
And I’m happy with Brand as our GM jumped in and has given us a good starting 5 on paper, signed Horford from the Celtics making them worse, drafted Thybulle who has been pretty good so far and given the coach Brown all the pieces in order to have a winning team
I forgot Reddick and fultz. In all seriousness Without embiid the sixers would be headed to the lottery.
Philly is the most talented team in the league. But the team is at (yet) another inflection point where they should consider that their organizational philosophy is flawed, and that they’re winning in spite of it. It’s not clear from the outside who’s making the decisions. Brett Brown is the only decision maker that’s been there throughout. He seems to have a lot of organizational say for a HC that hasn’t really distinguished himself. Hinke-Colangelo-Brand? Doesn’t appear that either GM transition was for basketball reasons. Appears everyone is on the same page, but is it the right page?