The Philadelphia 76ers made their second major trade of the season and landed the Los Angeles Clippers best player, Tobias Harris.
General manager (GM) Elton Brand did a great job earlier in the season landing elite two-way wing Jimmy Butler. Brand showed his prowess as a GM yet again before the NBA trade deadline by landing another star level player. This time, Brand made the following deal with the Los Angeles Clippers according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
Sources: Clippers and Sixers have agreed to trade Tobias Harris, Boban Marjanovic, Mike Scott for Landry Shamet, Wilson Chandler, Mike Muscala, 2020 first-rounder, 2021 unprotected 1st via Miami and two second rounders.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) February 6, 2019
The move was shocking to say the least. Adding a player in Tobias Harris who is averaging 20.9 points and 7.9 rebounds on 43.4 percent from 3-point land without giving up a core player is a great accomplishment by Brand. In the process, Brand also added a legit backup for Embiid in Boban Marjanovic and a solid back stretch-forward in Mike Scott.
Don’t be mistaken, this home run hit by Brand didn’t come without cost. Giving up Wilson Chandler and Mike Muscala was a somewhat expected must in order to acquire a player like Harris. Giving up multiple picks, first and second round, was necessary as well. It should noted that the 2020 first round pick is lottery protected and Derek Bonder of The Athletic explained the protections behind the pick.
Pick protections:
— Derek Bodner (@DerekBodnerNBA) February 6, 2019
- The 2020 #sixers pick is lottery protected. If it doesn't convey, it becomes the Sixers lotto-protected 2021 pick, and once again is lotto-protected in 2022 if still owed. If it doesn't convey in 2020, 2021 or 2022, it becomes 2nd rd picks in 2023 + 2024.
In short, the Sixers won’t be giving up too much value on the pick regardless of whenever it conveys. The two second round picks the Sixers are sending to the Clippers were via the Detroit Pistons in 2021 and 2023. However, these picks and players were the steepest price Brand had to pay in order to get a star level player in Harris.
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The two major pieces the Sixers gave up in this agreed upon trade were Landry Shamet and the 2021 unprotected first round pick, via the Miami Heat. Shamet leads rookies in 3-point percentage at 40.4 percent and was heir apparent to J.J. Redick before this deal happened. Due to the uncertainty of the Heat’s long term future, their unprotected pick may have extremely high value when it conveys.
In the past, I wrote about the potential of the Sixers acquiring Harris and some of the inherit risk that comes with it. The biggest of which is that he’s set to be a free agent at the end of the season. According to Wojnarowski, the plan is to re-sign Harris and Butler this summer and keep this core intact. This is possible because the Sixers get Harris’ Bird Rights in the trade which allows them go over the salary cap to do so.
Hopefully, a chance at a championship and being in the Philadelphia 76ers culture will help secure Harris for the long term. In the meantime, there’s little doubt that adding Harris improves the Sixers chances significantly to win the Eastern Conference Finals and an NBA championship.