The Philadelphia 76ers have a long trade history with the Detroit Pistons.
In terms of the best trades the Philadelphia 76ers have made with other teams thus far in this series of articles, the one with the Detriot Pistons is easily one the oldest it. Considering that both teams a very old, this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.
This was one of the harder ones to determine because, to be honest, the Sixers haven’t won many trades with the Pistons. It doesn’t mean that they usually come out as the loser, but they haven’t made many positive trades either.
The two clubs have executed a total of seven trades, with the first coming in 1958 and the most recent 2019. The best one the 76ers made with the Detriot occurred in 1959 when the franchise was named the Syracuse Nationals.
The best trade ever between Philly and Dallas was…
To be honest, I never heard of either of these players prior to doing research for this article. However, Philly was able to land a player in George Yardley who is a Hall of Fame player with six All-Star appears in seven seasons and averaged 19.2 points and 9.8 rebounds playing as a small forward.
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In Yardley’s first and only full season with the franchise, the then Nationals had a core of Yardley (second-leading scorer), Red Kerr, Larry Costello, Hal Greer, and Dolph Schayes. They also had a 45-30 record and made a playoff appearance.
Syracuse only had to give up Ed Conlin at the time. Conlin was a solid rotational for his career and averaged 10.1, but he wasn’t on the same level that Yardley was. The downside to this deal was that Yardley only played a season and a half with the franchise before his career was over.
Despite the Philadelphia 76ers having a different name in 1959, the franchise made it’s best transaction with the Pistons for a future Hall of Famer.