The Philadelphia 76ers have some serious playmaking woes, which makes someone like Tyus Jones a picture-perfect trade target for them. Unfortunately, that will probably remain an unexplored domain, especially since the roster is currently jampacked with guards who are jockeying for minutes night in and out.
Between Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe, Quentin Grimes, and Jared McCain, the 76ers already have a firm backcourt rotation that really does not need any more tweaking. To make matters worse, the front office opted to re-sign veteran guards such as Kyle Lowry and Eric Gordon, making it completely untenable for the team to add more mouths to feed in the guard positions.
The 76ers rack up the sixth-fewest assists per game in the league, which solidifies their prominent reliance on individual shot creation to turbocharge the offense. That offensive design has been more than sufficient so far, but given the team’s litany of talented scorers and finishers, having someone like Jones who can direct traffic and organize the team in the half-court would’ve gone a long way.
Guard logjam prevents the 76ers from going after perfect trade target
Jones, who signed with the Magic in the offseason to help fill their weakness in the same playmaking department, has somehow been disappointing so far this season. His court time has gone down significantly, and he appears to be detached from their offense. However, he has the gravitas to warrant some benefit of the doubt that he can still get back to his usual playing level on another team.
From the looks of it, the 76ers would have been perfect for him. Aside from the seemingly sterling fit on the hardwood, Philly has the necessary assets to make an easy deal with Orlando to obtain him. However, for reasons already mentioned, that is now a mooti proposition.
Nick Nurse and the coaching staff are already struggling just finding minutes for, say, McCain. Moving the needle for someone like Jones would only make that even tougher, even if there is some credence as to preferring a pass-first guard over McCain given his struggles.
Maybe, the 76ers can go pursue him in the offseason. Grimes is likely to demand a significant pay raise once again, and Philly simply cannot afford to get on another spending spree to accede his demands when he is not exactly an indispensable piece.
For now, this goes into one of those “bad timing” scenarios for the 76ers. The way their roster is constructed, even a pass-first guard who is badly needed simply has no room to get actual minutes.