The Philadelphia 76ers completed a transaction that brought them Ish Smith on Christmas Eve of 2015. One year later, how does that deal look?
The Philadelphia 76ers went into their Christmas break last season with just one measly win after a 13 point loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. It looked like it was going to be a long rest of the season, and it looked like the Sixers were in-line perfectly for the top overall pick in the NBA Draft that would occur in June, since they were by far the worst team in the league.
What fans didn’t quite see coming, though, was a trade. What they really didn’t see coming was the team trading for point guard Ish Smith, who they picked up off of waivers the season before.
Smith was a player who had a tough offseason, bouncing around from team to team with no one really looking to take a gamble on him. He spent the bulk of his summer with the Washington Wizards, but didn’t impress enough there for them to sign him to a deal for the season.
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Just a few days after he was waived by the Wizards, however, Smith was picked up by the New Orleans Pelicans, who had some serious backcourt injury issues in the beginning of the season, and needed someone to fill in for a month or so while their players rested up.
His contract was, by NBA standards, not big, coming in at just over $1 million for the season. With that in mind, and the interesting predicament the Sixers were having with their own backcourt, they pounced on the opportunity to make a trade for Ish on Christmas Eve of last season.
By the time Christmas Eve was upon us, Ish was used to an average of 10 minutes per game due to the main cogs in the backcourt returning from injury for the Pelicans. The Pelicans did not need him, the Sixers did, so it was a deal that made sense for both sides. The Sixers gave up just two second-round draft picks in the future for Smith. Although it was an annoyance that the Sixers gave up draft picks for a player they could have easily just signed over the summer, it was something that had to be done. The Sixers, leading up to Christmas Eve, were simply unwatchable on most nights, losing by an average of over 13 points per game.
The Sixers also had to release point guard Tony Wroten to make room for Smith.
Smith was a player the Sixers knew would work out well because he had already worked alongside Nerlens Noel and done very good. The vision that Smith demonstrates on the floor makes Noel an exponentially better player offensively, as Noel and Smith worked seamlessly together in pick-and-roll situations.
Fittingly, the Sixers would win their very first game with Ish Smith and also their first road game of the season. They defeated the Phoenix Suns 111-104 on the road. Smith had 14 points and 5 assists.
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The Ish Smith trade was one that was likely heavily orchestrated by Jerry Colangelo, who was, at the time breathing over Sam Hinkie’s shoulder, but one that made the Sixers much more bearable to watch over the rest of the season. While winning was never supposed to be the goal last year, the Sixers still came out on top (or, bottom, rather) when they won the top overall pick in the NBA Draft Lottery.
Sixers before Ish Smith trade
- Points: 91.4
- Assists: 18.8
- Offensive rating: 94.8
- Win percentage: 3.23%
Sixers after Ish Smith trade
- Points: 101.1
- Assits: 23.2
- Offensive rating: 102.5
- Win percentage: 22.0%
The Sixers did have an opportunity to sign Smith to another deal this summer, but chose not to, and instead went with guards like Sergio Rodriguez and Jerryd Bayless in free agency.
Smith did still get paid, though, picking up a 3-year, $18 million contract with the Detroit Pistons this summer. His work with the Sixers last season clearly did not go unnoticed,
Was the deal a success?
Overall, the deal didn’t really hurt or help the Sixers in the long-term. The team still ended up with the worst overall record, despite how much better Smith made the Sixers appear. The trade for Ish was one that was mostly for cosmetic reasons — that is to say that the Sixers play was downright ugly prior to trading for him — and therefore wasn’t the best use of assets possible, but it also wasn’t assets that were going to be able to be turned into much of value on their own.
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The Sixers will have to do without second-rounders for a few NBA Drafts now, but with the team turning the corner, hopefully second-rounders will begin to mean less and less to the team anyway.