Why the Philadelphia 76ers Shouldn’t Trade the Lakers Pick

It would be a huge mistake for the Philadelphia 76ers to trade the Lakers pick, even if they do not receive it this year.

The Los Angeles Lakers currently have the second worst record in the NBA at 9-41. If the Lakers finish the season with the second worst record, they’ll have a 55.8 percent chance of keeping their draft pick, since 55.8 percent is the chance that their first round pick is in the top three after the NBA lottery. For Philadelphia 76ers fans that watched the 2013-2014 rookie of the year Michael Carter-Williams get traded on February 19th, 2015, in a three team trade that sent MCW to the Milwaukee Bucks and the Lakers pick to the Sixers, another year without anything to show for MCW would be devastating. With the NBA trade deadline under a month away on February 18th, should the Sixers trade the Lakers first round pick for a player that could help them now and in the future?

While the Lakers pick would be much easier for most fans to part with than Nerlens Noel or Jahlil Okafor, it would be a big mistake for the Sixers to start offering the Lakers pick in trade proposals to other teams. The issue with the Lakers pick is that there are several different perspectives, but not reality. The Lakers pick is as valuable as the person trading for it believes it is. If you’re a general manager that loves the players likely to be available at the fourth or fifth pick in the 2016 NBA draft and are comfortable with a 55.8 percent chance at receiving nothing for at least a year, you would be willing to give the Sixers a very good player in return for that pick. If you’re a general manager that believes the Lakers are destined to get one of the top two picks in what many people believe is a two player draft, and that the Lakers are also destined to sign Kevin Durant in the offseason, and that the Lakers pick will be somewhere in the 20s of the 2017 NBA draft, you would only offer the eighth best player on your team for this pick.

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These vastly different values for the same product show the issues with adding it in any trade, because once there are rumors that the Sixers are shopping the Lakers pick, its value is destroyed. The Sixers would basically be telling the world that they don’t believe the Lakers pick will ever be in the lottery, and once people know they can buy something at a discount, they’re unlikely to pay full price for it. If Sixers management is as smart as I hope it is, they will never offer it in any trades. While people that hated trading MCW for the Lakers pick might find it insane to not attempt to see what other GMs might give the Sixers for it, part of the fun in “Trusting the Process” is having most people think you’re insane and believing you know better than them. If the Sixers don’t receive the Lakers pick for the upcoming draft, there is no reason why the Lakers can’t suck next year and the Sixers receive a lottery pick in a potentially stronger draft.

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If you really think about it, the Lakers are just the Sixers with better PR. Both franchise’s futures were ruined in the same trade that brought Andrew Bynum to the Sixers and Dwight Howard to the Lakers, both players in that trade left the team that traded for them after one season, the Sixers believed signing Nick Young was a good idea in 2012 and the Lakers believed signing Nick Young was a good idea in 2013 and then extended that mistake by re-signing Young to a four-year contract in 2014, and both teams had worse records than the previous year ever since that horrific trade. The Sixers were 34-48 in 2012-2013, 19-63 in 2013-2014, and 18-64 in 2014-2015, and the Lakers were 45-37 in 2012-2013, 27-55 in 2013-2014, and 21-61 in 2014-2015 seasons.

While the Lakers have been a better team than the Sixers in the past three seasons, they were terrible the past two season and are just as bad, possibly even worse than the Sixers this season, so why do the Lakers get significantly less criticism than the Sixers?

Maybe Sam Hinkie’s biggest mistake this past offseason was not signing Allen Iverson to play point guard and announcing this would be his final season. In this scenario, everyone would be too busy feeling good about witnessing Iverson’s final season to realize that they might be watching the worst team in franchise history and the Sixers could tank in peace. It’s kind of funny how little outrage there was when the Lakers became the only victory to the franchise killing, NBA disgracing, and young men torturing 1-30 before Ish Smith 76ers.

Next: Sixers Trade Odds And Ends

Based on the Lakers downward trajectory from season to season, Sixers fans should be worried that the Lakers will be the worst team in the 2016-2017 season and they’ll have to wait another year to receive the pick due to it being top 3 protected that season? If this scenario does happen, why can’t the Lakers be the worst team again in the 2017-2018 season and win the NBA lottery resulting in the Sixers receiving the top pick in the 2018 draft, because the Lakers pick is unprotected in 2018? There are many possibilities for the Sixers to get a great NBA prospect with Lakers pick, as long as they don’t trade it.