It has been nearly a month since the trade season unofficially began, and just like that, the trade deadline is similarly only a month away. As a result, teams in need of a change on the margins, such as the Philadelphia 76ers, have to double time in ironing out deals on the market in time for the second half of the present campaign and their impending playoff push.
With each passing day, teams are able to get a clearer view on the players who are actually avgailable for taking. While some teams are overachieving this season, there are also a bunch of squads that are falling well short of preseason expectations, turning them into potential sellers when the push comes to shove.
However, while the 76ers fall under the latter category, the probable maneuver for them is to take on the role of buyers. Philly is far from incentivized to punt this season and look forward to the next. Joel Embiid is not getting any younger, and the East’s top-heavy veneers gives them a higher floor than usual despite their losing record.
Another rumored 76ers trade target goes down to injury
One area the 76ers are expected to try to address via the trade market is second-unit scoring. Just like last season, Philadelphia once again touts one of the lowest-scoring bench squads in the NBA, and what was once expected to be a deep team has become shallow thanks to role players overcompensating for injuries to key starters.
Thus, the 76ers were previously rumored to be in the market for proven scorers who can bolster the bench, and one name that has gottent traction on the rumor mill is Jazz veteran Jordan Clarkson. A former Sixth Man of the Year award recipient, the 32-year-old’s scoring ability cannot be denied, and his salary fits right into what the team can match with its current assets.
Unfortunately, Philadelphia may be forced to pull away from the Clarkson mini-sweepstakes. The veteran scorer is expected to be out for quite some time with a torn left plantar fascia, and the team simply canot afford to settle for injury-prone commodities when they are banked on to carry out band-aid duties as potential rentals.
This is another unlucky development for the 76ers’ trade deadline plans — one that could be wrecked by the pervasive injury bug or teams rethinking their stances on players believed to be available. Just a wee prior, another potential trade target in Larry Nance Jr., went down with an injury, taking out another name for the front office to make a play for.
The Philadelphia 76ers front office still have considerable time to go after a different route, but if this keeps up and the injury bug continues to ick everyone, the team may not have a lot of options left to fill niche areas of need, forcing them to make do with whatever they have on deck — problematic or not.