The Philadelphia 76ers have traded Kendall Marshall, but it seems like it could have been because of a request from him to be traded.
Kendall Marshall is officially out as a Philadelphia 76ers player. Just about a year after he was brought onto the team with hopes that the injured UNC project could make his bold return to the NBA, he was moved. Marshall was traded to the Utah Jazz for draft picks (and a player that will ultimately be waived, Tibor Pleiss).
Although the move is one that the Sixers came out on top of, it’s not one that they had to make. Based on some social media assumptions and common sense, it’s safe to think that Marshall might have even requested a trade from the Sixers.
Now, bear with me, because this does make some social media assumptions. I know that the general stigma around assuming things in the social media world is, well, negative, and at times, that makes sense.
For instance, when the Sixers fan base had a semi-freakout when Nerlens Noel changed his Twitter picture and header, despite the fact that he was obviously just being a troll, that was an instance where we shouldn’t have looked too far into Twitter.
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But here, it makes a bit more sense.
Kendall Marshall is pretty active on Twitter. I have a custom list on my profile that keeps track of all the Sixers athletes accounts, and on summer days, it’s often filled up with a lot of Kendall Marshall screaming into the void. So it was a little bit troubling when, of all the Tweets Marshall sent out this summer, none of them were related to the Sixers. It seemed as if not one Tweet talked about training camp coming up, the exciting future with the team, nothing.
This was a change from last season when Marshall seemed excited to debut with Philly.
It’s clear Marshall had no interest with the team, and after his first season with them, why would he? Marshall’s season consisted of him failing to live up to expectations, and failing to get playing time good enough for him to do something notable.
Marshall’s contract for this season is a fairly small one (under $2 million, which is just over 2 percent of the salary cap) so the Sixers really didn’t have much motivation to seek out trades for him. Additionally, they could easily have kept him on through training camp and simply waived him at the end of it.
For Marshall, however, that would be a waste of time. Stay with a team through training camp even though you know it’s likely that you’ll be cut? Why not spend that time working out for other teams or something of the like? Also, if the Sixers were to waive Marshall, he is missing out on making money for the next few seasons. If he gets traded, he has a better chance of staying on his current contract and making the money that he originally signed for.
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If the Sixers weren’t pursuing trades for Marshall, it seems logical for him to urge them to try and move him. The relationship between the two parties obviously did not work, and it was time for it to come to a close. How it ended, however, was largely more important to Marshall than it was to Philly.