Should the Philadelphia 76ers swing for the fences?
Fresh off praising Daryl Morey for his patience in the James Harden trade, I came across a three-way trade scenario that I do believe makes sense for the Philadelphia 76ers and all teams involved.
Grant Hughes from Bleacher Report put forth an interesting trade concept.
I altered the framework a little and brought forth this:
- PHI gets: Kyle Lowry, Bradley Beal
- TOR gets: Tyrese Maxey, Matisse Thybulle, Mike Scott, Davis Bertans
- WAS gets: Ben Simmons, Danny Green, 2021 first-round pick (unprotected via PHI), 2023 first round pick (unprotected via PHI), 2022 lottery-protected first-round pick (via TOR), swap rights with Philadelphia for 2024 first-round pick
The scenario has since been floated around and it felt worth discussing.
We’ll explore Philadelphia’s perspective later, but we’ll start with the franchise losing its current best player.
Washington Wizards
Washington will be giving up Beal and Bertans. After moving on from John Wall, Beal cemented his status as the face of the franchise. Bertans is fresh off of signing a five-year, $80 million dollar contract. That is a ton to give up.
Washington isn’t going to the playoffs again and a restart is likely the prudent move, but these are people who go to work every day. Committing to a restart, shipping your franchise’s cornerstone away, isn’t easy.
Beal has been incredibly important to that community and currently leads the NBA in points per game. Bertans is coming off back-to-back seasons shooting over 42 percent from 3-point range.
Yet business must go and for Washington they know the decision should be sooner than later. Their focus should turn to maximizing returns. With this trade, they get three first round picks and a pick swap.
The biggest piece is Ben Simmons. He is signed for two more years than Beal so his value will hold longer. He is a DPOY candidate and it appears he can be that for a decade. On the other end, he is capable of a triple-double every night. His positives are tremendous and he will likely thrive in a different environment even more than he has in Philadelphia. I am a Simmons fan through and through.
Beyond Simmons, they also get three first round picks, a pick swap and Danny Green. I suspect Green would be flipped at the deadline to a team looking to bolster their wing rotation.
All the while, Washington could decide to dive into a rebuild even further by flipping Simmons elsewhere (*couch* Atlanta) and join the New Orleans Pelicans and Oklahoma City Thunder as the only teams drafting over the next six seasons. Either way, the team is currently 3-12 and losing value for their best asset as the losing compounds.
Three firsts, one swap, Simmons, and a commodity in Green is a package nearing that for James Harden when you consider the picks they could return as well.
For all-star trades, this haul would be very solid value.