Philadelphia 76ers failed to take advantage of the buyout market

The Philadelphia 76ers’ front office has made another miscalculation this season by not taking advantage of the buyout market.

It’s no secret that the Philadelphia 76ers roster had some major holes in it. General manager Elton Brand did try to correct some of the issues by subtracting James Ennis, Trey Burke and Jonah Bolden for Glenn Robinson III, Alec Burks and Norvel Pelle (on a regular NBA deal). There were still improvements Brand could have made to the roster if he actually used the buyout market.

Dion Waiters was probably the most ideal player that a fully healthy Sixers team needed immediately following the trade deadline, as I have written on before, he signed with the Los Angeles Lakers. However, the 76ers didn’t stay healthy for very long after the trade deadline.

Brand should have gone to work as soon as the injury to Ben Simmons occurred. I wrote that Tim Frazier, Tyler Johnson, and Isaiah Thomas were all viable options at the backup point guard position. One could argue that any of those players would be an upgrade over Raul Neto at this point.

More from The Sixer Sense

There are only three excuses that Brand really has for not being active in the buyout market. The first being is that Joel Embiid also got injured and making a roster spot open for a point guard would have put the center depth chart in jeopardy. However, with head coach Brett Brown leaning on power forward Mike Scott as the primary backup center for this stretch, that argument is invalid.

The emergency of Shake Milton has also probably not made the need to add another point guard via the buyout market. Still, outside of Milton, Neto has played inconsistently at times this season. Despite the breakout play by Milton, the point guard depth chart could still use improvement.

The other is from a chemistry standpoint. Last season, there was a lot of roster turnover and the team’s chemistry suffered from that perspective. With the team’s core not getting a lot of playing time together this season, changing the roster too much may not be a good thing.

This is probably the strongest case for not being active in the buyout market, but if the Sixers are really trying to make a playoff run, then improving the bench is a must, even if it hurts chemistry a little bit.

It should be noted that while Philly hasn’t signed anyone yet, any players that were waived before March 1, of this year can still sign with the team and be postseason eligible. However, it seems unlikely at this point that Brand will decide to go that route. If he was going to sign someone, he would have done it when these injuries occurred. Brand still has a chance to improve the roster, but it seems unlikely at this point.

Next. Bench rotation when the stars return. dark

There were several players that were bought out that could have improved the depth on the Philadelphia 76ers. The fact that Brand didn’t sign any of them should be held against him, especially if the Sixers fail to win a title.