The Philadelphia 76ers had what amounted to tryouts for the point guard position last season. When that failed to produce a true starter, the team traded two second round picks for their former point guard Ish Smith. But trade deadline rumors indicate the point guard position is anything but settled.
The general. The floor marshall. The guy who is in charge. Right now, the Philadelphia 76ers have a patch on their road to the promised land. A one year deal on point guard Ish Smith to hold the team together long enough to see the quality of the rest of the roster. He alley oops to Nerlens Noel. He feeds the ball to Jahlil Okafor at the post. He’ll charge the lane and take the shot or pop the ball back out to Robert Covington for a trey. He does what the team needs, for now.
But what the team will need is much more apparently. Don’t take my word for it. Don’t trust me to translate comments. Look at the actions by the team at the trade deadline. Keith Pompey of philly.com had a breaking story about the Philadelphia 76ers efforts to wrest point guard Dennis Schroeder from the Atlanta Hawks in exchange for shooting guard Nik Stauskas, point guard Ish Smith, and a 2016 first-round pick. While the deal failed to materialize, the same sources who shared details with Pompey indicated that he expects the Sixers and Hawks to revisit trade talks for him during the NBA draft on June 23.
Sources: #Sixers came close to big trade with #Hawks https://t.co/qBcIfe6iX3 via @phillysport
— Keith Pompey (@PompeyOnSixers) February 23, 2016
The story passes the logic test in terms of a big trade and fits the current narrative about the Philadelphia 76ers looking to improve now. The team has a lot of players on the current roster and soon to join the team, so packaging two – three players for someone they have determined could be a keystone to the future of the organization does make sense from that stand point. With their current roster salary pushing the league minimum, the team has plenty of dollars to pass along to secure THE player, once they have determined who that player might be.
We had looked at the recent small ball success of the Sixers, and it’s a fairly remote chance that a move to bring in a young veteran could signal the team’s directional change to pursue the success of the Golden State Warriors and their mastery of the small ball game. But that’s fairly remote. The more likely scenario is that president and manager Sam Hinkie was establishing a market price for a point guard talent, and can now truly guage in the remaining time of this season whether that asking price is worth the value, and how to go about fitting that into his overall scheme. But even that remains very speculative.
Next: Will Schroder Come Later?