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When news broke that the Philadelphia 76ers were holding KJ Martin out of their contest against the Dallas Mavericks with a “pending trade” designation, it got fans hyped.
Finally, fans would get to see Daryl Morey's off-season masterclass come to fruition, and the 76ers would be able to use the forward's inflated cap hit to bring back another playoff-viable rotation piece.
And yet, the 76ers didn't get back a player like their old friend Nico Batum or a shooter like Seth Curry, but instead, they sent Martin to Detroit for cash and had to attach not one but two second-round picks to get the Pistons bradd to agree to the deal.
What gives? How did things blow up in Philly's face so spectacularly? Well, as Morey noted in his post-trade deadline media session, the 76ers ended up having different priorities, and they opted to move off of Martin as a result.
“With KJ, we both felt [in the offseason] he could help us and would be a potential path for us to upgrade the team, primarily this year,” Morey said via the Philly Voice. “But [as the trade deadline neared] we were sort of looking at a holistic plan of bot getting younger, getting players we think are ones that can help us now and into the future and also create flexibility to keep the key players on this team going forward. And we prioritized that over what KJ, CBA-wise, was able to do from a trade perspective to upgrade the team.”
Now, as more than a few fans have pointed out, the real winner of the 76ers trade was the ownership group, as moving off of Martin's contract provided no 2025-26 cap relief since his money was non-guaranteed. And the worst part? That wasn't the only second-rounder the 76ers blew, as they ended up taking another knock from the Mavericks shortly thereafter.
Why did the 76ers update their Dallas trade compensation?
Later in his media session, Morey explained why the 76ers ended up having to trade a third second-round pick at the deadline, with their negotiations with the Mavericks being updated after the fact. For Morey, it came down to Caleb Martin's health, which the two sides didn't initially agree on.
“Long-term, there's agreement that he's fine. Both the Dallas and Philadelphia medical staffs had many discussions about where Caleb's at, which happens as part of a trade. There's still full agreement on where he's at,” Morey noted. “He has sort of a nagging sort of injury. He was scheduled to play for us. Dallas is concerned that it's uncertain how soon he'll be back. They were concerned that that nagging injury might last a little longer than anticipated. But long-term, everyone agrees he's fine, which is why the trade went through. But to acknowledge that, ‘Hey, you might not have this guy on day one,' that's where we amended the trade, and it went through.”
Fortunately for the 76ers, they left with a trade deadline plus-two in the second-round pick department following a late deal with Washington. Unfortunately, it came at the expense of a future first-round pick, which will really sting a few years down the line unless Jared Butler becomes a certified player as Philly's fourth guard.
