Philadelphia 76ers: What To Do With Kendall Marshall
This season the Philadelphia 76ers have plenty of options at point guard, where does this leave the team with last year’s disappointment Kendall Marshall?
Last season was a disappointment for the Philadelphia 76ers on a multitude of levels. Highest on the list is the team’s record at the end of the season (10-72). Regardless of the disappointments, whether it being Jahlil Okafor’s off-court issues, Nik Stauskas’ inability to grow as a shooter or Brett Brown’s failure of making duo of big men compatible on the floor, one of the bigger issue the team faced was the long term option at point guard .
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The list could go on and on, but most of these led to the change in the front office with former general manager, Sam Hinkie, leaving in dramatic fashion and new president of basketball operations, Bryan Colangelo, taking the reigns of franchise.
He has done a lot so far to make sure the franchise does not fall into the same failures of last year, such as drafting Ben Simmons first overall, who has the potential to become the savior at point guard. Colangelo’s work is still not done; one of the decisions he must make is what to do with Kendall Marshall.
The Sixers have a surplus of options at point guard with Simmons, T.J. McConell, Sergio Rodriguez, and Jerryd Bayless to name the popular options.
As of now Marshall is on the outside looking in with his forgettable play last season. Colangelo has several options in how he will can handle the Marshall situation. The first option is to try to let Marshall fight for a roster spot this preseason. Marshall was dealing with ACL recovery and that might have contributed to his poor play.
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If Marshall can regain his 2013-14 season form it would not be far fetched that it might to make the final 15 man roster for the start of the regular season. Still, that might not be a guarantee, because of the two veteran point guards that Colangelo brought in this off season — Rodriguez and Bayless. This shows that Colangelo is ready to move on from Marshall and if this proves to be the case, then Colangelo could simply waive Marshall.
If Colangelo focuses his “inner Hinkie”, he would realize that waiving Marshall is not the best option, but rather waiting to trade him. Colangelo has two ways of shipping Marshall out of town.
Marshall could be a part of a trade that would send out of the two big men that the Sixers have been trying to trade since the end of the this past season. It would be easy to have him as a tag on in a trade as most teams do when they want to get rid of a player that they are unwilling to waive.
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If he cannot get Marshall as an add on player in another deal, Colangelo can do an individual deal to do a one for one exchange for Marshall. The Sixers could use depth on the wing and one option would be the Sacramento Kings. Ben McLemore is an athletic wing that has not lived up to his lottery pick status.
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It may appear that McLemore had a down year but beyond his free throw percentage being down, his lower stats can be attributed to lesser minutes. If McLemore did not have to be in an environment where there was constant coaching and organizational change like he dealt with the Kings, he could finally improve. The Philadelphia 76ers would have to add in one or two second round draft picks to sweeten the pot, but that would be more than a fair trade.
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The Kings would get ride of excesses wings players and add a draft pick. More importantly than those two reasons, it would allow the Kings to add depth the point guard, provided that Marshall regains his previous form, that would not threaten Darren Collison’s position as starter. The Sixers would get an athletic wing that could develop behind Gerald Henderson, as well as solving the problem of excess depth at the point guard position.
Next: How Okafor and Simmons Could be a Power Duo
Colangelo has a handful of tough decisions in the upcoming months, and this will be one of them. Unless Marshall surprises everyone at training camp, it would not be surprising if he was not on the team by the end of the season. There are so many storylines going into this season, which means the Sixers will make for an interesting team to watch.