The Philadelphia 76ers are a good basketball team. To be a great basketball team, they probably need to acquire a depth piece or two before the February 5th trade deadline. There are plenty of places they could turn — but the New Orleans Pelicans appear to be a gold mine of perfect fits for the Sixers. Herb Jones and Trey Murphy III would be home runs, while Yves Missi or Saddiq Bey would be nice second-unit pickups that could provide important minutes in Philly.
Unfortunately, it sounds like the 10-35 Pelicans aren't open for business as the trade deadline approaches. Seriously. At least on any of their big-name players, according to Jake Fischer, who said recently on a Bleacher Report YouTube stream that, "They've been signaling loud and clear that they don't want to move Zion, they don't want to move Trey Murphy, they don't want to move Herb Jones."
So perhaps Bey and Missi and other Pelicans would be available — but the real difference-makers not being on the table would cross off a few promising trade options for the Sixers. Thus, the Sixers should hope that, despite reports to the contrary, the Pelicans eventually open up for a fire sale in the next few weeks.
Sixers could mine Pelicans for gold if stars aren't available
If that fire sale doesn't come, though, there are still some guys on the Pels who the Sixers should take a flyer on, and Saddiq Bey is chief among them.
I don't know how to explain this, but it's shocking that Bey has never played for the Sixers before. Do you know what I mean? Some role players just make sense on certain teams, and Bey seems like a guy who would have, at one point, played for this team.
Last year's first-round pick, Yves Missi, also appears to be available, as his spot in the rotation and the future of this team has been taken over by rookie Derik Queen. Going after Missi depends on how much trust Daryl Morey has in the combination of Adem Bona and Andre Drummond. If that confidence level is low, then adding another true center to the roster could be in the mix.
If the Sixers are star hunting at the deadline, though, it doesn't appear that New Orleans is the place to look. To each their own, I suppose. Even if "their own" means keeping a 10-35 team together.