Philadelphia 76ers shouldn’t poach the Utah Jazz’s roster

Whenever a former playoff team decides to enter a rebuild, it’s easy for most fans to want their city’s to pursue that roster’s veteran players for their own club. In that regard, it would make sense to want the Philadelphia 76ers to poach the Utah Jazz’s roster of veteran talent.

Unless you don’t usually follow the NBA or have lived without the media for the last several months, then it’s clear that the Jazz has entered a rebuild. This is only after they failed to build a true contender around the now-traded core of Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell.

Gobert is with the Minnesota Timberwolves forming a “twin-tower” tandem with Karl-Anthony Towns and Mitchell has joined the young core on the Cleveland Cavaliers. However, the Jazz still have the rest of the veterans heading into this rebuild. The question is should the Sixers pursue these veterans?

The Philadelphia 76ers can’t pursue the Jazz’s veterans in a trade.

The simple answer to the question is no, they shouldn’t. However, it’s more of they shouldn’t than they can’t. Theoretically, they could if they would be willing to trade Tobias Harris, but any trade they make involving Harris would make the Sixers worse.

There are five veterans that should be on most teams’ radars. Mike Conley, Jordan Clarkson, Malik Beasley, Bojan Bogdanovic, and Rudy Gay are still quality NBA players. However, the issue with all these players besides Gay is matching money.

Unless Harris is involved, it’s impossible for the 76ers to match the salary for Conley, Bogdanovic, and Beasley. Conley is past his prime, Beasley is a good bench scorer, and Bogdanovic is near the end of his prime. Any combination of those players isn’t better than Harris at this point.

It’s not impossible to acquire Clarkson, but with De’Anthony Melton already on the roster and it doesn’t make too much sense as Clarkson isn’t a major upgrade over the young guard. That’s not including the fact there won’t be much playing time for the former Sixth Man of the Year winner with Philly’s starting backcourt of Tyrese Maxey and James Harden.

That leaves Gay, but the Sixers need 3-and-D wings, neither of which is Gay’s strength. It’s better if the 76ers just hold onto P.J. Tucker and Georges Niang at this point.

The Philadelphia 76ers are already a contender in the Eastern Conference and most teams in the Sixers situation should consider poaching the Jazz’s talent. However, based on team needs and the 76ers salary cap situation, Utah isn’t the ideal trade partner for Philly right now.