The Philadelphia 76ers managed to stop the bleeding for a bit in the aftermath of their impressive road win over a much more competitive iteration of the PIstons, but there aren’t a lot of reasons to be confident in the team’s ability to make that part a bit more permanent. After all, inconsistency has plagued them all season long across all corners.
In fact, the 76ers need much more than a mere band-aid. With the club still touting the second-worst record in the Eastern Conference with a 4-14 win-loss card while their contemporaries start mounting winning streaks, the front office inarguably needs to ramp up making changes to the roster the moment the doors open for transactions.
With most trade restrictions getting lifted in a couple of weeks, the 76ers should start seeing the light of day on the changes department. Their offseason moves have not panned out as expected, and their mainstays have similarly disappointed, making an in-season trade almost imperative for them at this rate.
And now, thanks to one team eyeing a bottoming out act, Philadelphia just got handed two, new trade targets to pursue.
New trade targets emerge for the 76ers as Jazz attempt to bottom out
A grand total of three teams boast a worse record than the 76ers, and one of them is Utah, which is sitting snugly at the bottom of the jampacked Western Conference with a 4-16 win-loss card. As expected, the Jazz have been pretty terrible, and their lack of general direction as a franchise has continued to doom them.
However, it seems like Danny Ainge is now willing to do what’s long overdue and finally aim to bottom out for better lottery position. As a result, they are reportedly making their relatively older commodities available for taking, namely Jordan Clarkson and Collin Sexton.
Both score-first guards have been on the rumor mill for quite a while, but for the 76ers, they are far from old news. In fact, Philly would be served well trying to pin them down on their bulletin as names to potentially target in trades.
Both Clarkson and Sexton are signed until next season to reasonable deals, making them plenty attractive for any team in need of a scoring jolt. Sure, the 76ers don’t really need another mouth to feed in the backcourt, but their bench scoring has been rocky to say the least, and the team’s lack of a natural playmaker while also not having room for a dominant ball handler gives them reason to pursue another shot creator who can go get them a bucket when needed.
Either Clarkson or Sexton can be up for the role as both are legitimate three-level scorers who can playmaker in spurts. With the 76ers getting subpar production from Kelly Oubre Jr. and Eric Gordon, among others, both guards would be considerable upgrades over those two.
Trade rumors are starting to hoard the newsstands, and as usual, expect the Philadelphia 76ers to be a frequent customer — moreso in this abysmal campaign of theirs.