The Sixers and Thunder have officially finalized a trade agreement that was reached prior to the draft last month, formally announcing today that Al Horford has been sent to Oklahoma City.
Along with Horford, the Thunder also acquired the draft rights to No. 34 pick Theo Maledon, the draft rights to 2014 second-round pick Vasilije Micic, and the Sixers’ 2025 first-round pick (top-six protected).
The 76ers, meanwhile, add veteran shooting guard Danny Green, fourth-year wing Terrance Ferguson, and French big man Vincent Poirier in the swap.
As cap expert Albert Nahmad (Twitter link) and others have explained, the two teams decided to wait until today to finalize the trade because trade restrictions have now lifted on Green and Poirier, who were moved in separate deals last month and couldn’t have their salaries aggregated in a second trade until December 8.
Oklahoma City could have completed the trade without aggregating Green’s and Poirier’s salaries to match Horford’s $27.5MM cap hit, but it would have required the team to use its recently-created $27.5MM traded player exception. The Thunder will now be able to hang onto that exception – created in the Steven Adams deal – to use later this season or early in the 2021 offseason.
Poirier wasn’t initially reported as being part of the trade, but his inclusion was required for salary-matching purposes, since the Thunder didn’t use their TPE. Philadelphia can slide his $2.62MM salary into the $2.66MM trade exception created in last month’s Josh Richardson deal, allowing the Sixers to generate a new $8.1MM TPE in today’s transaction.
It’s not clear whether the Thunder intend to hang onto Horford for the entire 2020/21 season, since the team’s primary motive for the deal was acquiring the future first-round pick, Maledon, and Micic. It’s possible Oklahoma City will take a similar approach to Horford that it did to Chris Paul a year ago, hoping that he can increase his future trade value with a solid season. For now, his pricey multiyear contract will make him difficult to flip.
As for the Sixers, they saved some short- and long-term money in the deal and added at least one rotation player. Green, who has won titles in each of the last two years, will give the club another solid outside shooter — he has made 40.0% of his career attempts from beyond the arc.
Ferguson, meanwhile, took a step back in 2019/20 but had a promising ’18/19 season at age 20 (6.9 PPG with a .366 3PT%) and should compete for minutes on the wing. It’s unclear whether or not Poirier is part of the club’s plans. He may compete with non-guaranteed players like Ryan Broekhoff and Justin Anderson for the final spot on the regular season roster.
All of the NBA trades agreed upon this offseason have now been officially completed, as our tracker shows.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Finally…was kinda worried it was all gonna fall apart.
With that said,in typical Philly sports fashion,I expect Horford to have a great bounce back season,and then in the next year or 2,Micic will come over and become the next Tony Parker.
That dude is already 26. He ain’t coming over.
Idk,I think on a rebuilding team like Okc he might.Ive read before that he didn’t wanna come over to play a minimal role,so if Okc offers him a chance at regular rotation minutes,I think it’s possible he does.
So he is going to play just as well as Chris Paul did last year allowing OKC to send him to another sucker like Phoenix?
I definitely think it’s possible.He should definitely get minutes with Adams traded.And on a team figuring itself out,I think he could end up having a 16p-8r-4a-1b&s type of season.And then after the season he’ll be down to a 1yr guarantee,with a partial on the 2nd.A team with a short window and a need for frontcourt help could take a 1 yr chance on him.And if it don’t work out,they either save money on the partial,or use him as bait to a team that could also save it.
Luke Adams – One comment/clarification.
The TPE can be used in pieces for multiple players, so it wouldn’t have gone away if they used a portion of it in this trade.
But, I’m sure they wanted to keep the whole exception for now since you can’t combine TPE’s and you can’t acquire a player if they’re making more than your TPE.
The exception is worth $27.53MM and Horford’s salary is $27.5MM, so it may not have “gone away,” but it wouldn’t have been practical to use the leftover $30K.
Although if they’d used it to take on Horford, they would’ve created multiple new trade exceptions worth the outgoing players’ salaries, including a $15.4MM one for Green.
I understand your point now.
I was thinking in terms of only using the portion needed to offset the salary difference after Danny Green’s and Terrance Ferguson’s salaries were included.
Okc probably also didn’t wanna eat Horfords whole salary as well.While they still could in year 2,they still remove around 20m by moving the players instead.And they’ll have a year to adjust for that 2nd year,and then the 3rd is only partially guaranteed.
If 76ers trade Danny Green for future pick, they are below the luxury tax line
They probably have to give a pick in order for someone to take Green.