Trading for a Guard Makes Sense for the Sixers

With Jerryd Bayless out for the season, trading for another guard with not much time left on their contract makes sense for the Philadelphia 76ers.

The Philadlephia 76ers season took a turn for the worst on Thursday night when the team formally announced that pount guard Jerryd Bayless would miss the rest of the season after undergoing surgery on his wrist. The wrist had ben problematic for Bayless for weeks to begin the season, and surgery was something that ultimately could not be ruled out.

With the exit of Jerryd Bayless comes a lot of quesitons for the Sixers future, many of those questions regarding rookie first overall pick Ben Simmons. Bayless was a solid offseason signing that was praised highly because he was going to fit perfectly as an off-ball point guard next to the ball-handler forward in Simmons. With Bayless out, what’s next?

The Sixers could, of course, revert to a mundane way of thinking and become satisfied with their roster, but nothing innovative comes out of being complacent. If the Sixers can find a suitor and the right pieces fall into place, it doesn’t seem like it would be a bad thing for the Sixers to try to find another guard that could fill a similar role to Bayless.

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The Sixers should be doing anything possible to set Simmons up to jump-start his career, and putting guards around him that don’t need the ball in their hands as often as the traditional guards do will really help him shine.

The Sixers should not, however, be looking to trade for any point guard available. Bayless is, on paper, the perfect fit of a point guard to run alongside Simmons with Simmons as a point forward and primary ball-handler, and the Sixers should still look to eventually run Bayless with Simmons. But with him out for this season, there’s not that much negative in finding someone who can, in essence, do much of what Bayless would have done if he were healthy.

So instead of finding just any old guard, the Sixers should be looking for a guard who has a contract expiring after this season, and a guard that works best off of the ball. The expiring contract would open up the door for Bayless to return as the point guard alongside Simmons next season, and the likeness to Henderson in being an off-ball point guard would provide some familiarity for Simmons to develop with, which could help him long-term in his career.

On one hand, if the trade works out, and the guard helps Simmons ease out of his injury and into his NBA career, the Sixers will have been really smart. On the other hand, if the trade doesn’t pan out well, it’s not a big deal given that the player will be a free agent at the end of the year anyway. There’s not a whole lot to lose by the Sixers trading for a player with an expiring contract, as long as they’re not giving up a ton in the meantime.

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That’s the big part that’s going to be a deciding factor — What do the Sixers give up? The ideal situation is a trade that also moves either Nerlens Noel or Jahlil Okafor, but teams that are looking for players that fit that bill seem to be few and far between these days. And do the Sixers really want to move one of their bigs for a rental player?

Additionally, the Sixers would probably have to waive T.J. McConnell if they brought on another guard, or at least plan on not keeping him past this season. If they don’t trade for another guard, the trade-off may be that the Sixers lose opportunities for T.J. McConnell to prove that he can be a solid NBA player.

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The Sixers also should consider what they would give up in a trade like this, since what they would be giving up would literally be just for a one-year player. That said, despite the fact that the player in return would be just for a single year, the effects of that player could be felt very much in the long-term if that player impacts the way Simmons plays in a large enough way.