What If the Sixers Copied the Celtics’ Rebuild Part 2
Starting at the 2013 NBA draft, the Jrue Holiday trade would’ve still happened and the Sixers would have still drafted Michael Carter-Williams.
The Sixers had a team with no hope of ever competing for a championship and the ability to trade their All-Star player for multiple draft pick in a trade that was extremely one sided in their favorite. While Jrue Holiday was significantly younger than Pierce and Garnett, he didn’t possess the same name value or accomplishments that would cause a general manager to give up as much as the Nets gave up.
The sixth pick in the 2013 draft and what eventually became the tenth in the 2014 draft for Holiday is about as close to a Sixers’ version of the Celtics and Nets trade that were possible with the Sixers’ lack of assets.
Drafting Michael Carter Williams (MCW) would continue to fillthe Sixers’ newly created need at point guard and the Celtics drafting point guards with their first round picks in 2014 (Smart) and 2015 (Terry Rozier). Commiting two top picks in consecutive years show that replicating their rebuild means never going into a season without a point guard. This would prevent the Sixers from trading MCW to the Milwaukee Bucks for the Lakers top 5 protected draft pick at the 2015 NBA trade deadline.
Next: MCW