Philadelphia 76ers: Davis Bertans not a trade option

3-point shooting is on the Philadelphia 76ers check list for the trade market, but at least one option won’t be available to make a deal for.

The Philadelphia 76ers have slowly become a good 3-point shooting team this year, as they are ranked seventh in 3-point percentage. Still, with the spacing issues created by Ben Simmons and to a lesser extent Joel Embiid, the team could always use more outside shooting. Christopher Kline of The Sixer Sense recently wrote about three trade options with Davis Bertans being one of them.

Sadly, he’s not available for trade, according to Washington Wizards general manager Tommy Shepard (audio interview link here). In a recent interview, Shepard had the following to say about the 6-foot-10 stretch four (quote transcribed by NBC Sports Washington).

"“‘We have every intention of retaining him. He’s the exact type of player we want to have in our organization. I think he wants to be here. Business will take care of itself…There’s so much chit-chat in this league that gets out there. Most of it is contrived by the teams that would love to have Davis. Well, guess what? One of the teams that would have to have him, has him. We intend to keep him. We’re excited about his growth.”"

It seems like the Wizards view Bertans as a core player moving forward, which is good for D.C., but bad for Philly.

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Bertans is one of the best 3-point shooters in the NBA this season. He’s tied for second most made 3-pointers per game with Buddy Hield at 3.9 and only behind James Harden. He’s also eighth in 3-point percentage at 45.6 percent.

On a side note, Sixers rookie Matisse Thybulle is fifth in 3-point percentage shooting it at 46.7 percent from downtown. Still he’s the only player from Philly that’s in the top-50 in 3-point percentage, which is part of the reason why the 76ers need more outside shooting.

Bertans is also averaging career highs in pointers per game at 15.4 and rebounds per game at 4.6. It’s understandable that the Wizards don’t want to part with the fourth-year forward. Still this makes the Sixers wish list for the trade market smaller, which is never a good thing.

Kline also mentioned two former 76ers wings in his article in shooting guard J.J. Redick and combo forward Robert Covington. It’s hard to imagine many teams want to trade an elite 3-point shooter this season outside of those two that were listed by Kline.

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With Bertans appearing to be off the market at the moment, the Philadelphia 76ers don’t have that many options to replace him as a potential trade target. Hopefully, they can find at least one player to help with their perimeter shooting before the trade deadline.