The Philadelphia 76ers have managed to maintain their status as a potential championship contender despite trading star guard James Harden. A big part of that has been the emergence of Tyrese Maxey as a legitimate star player. Maxey's development has had a big influence on how the Sixers will approach the NBA trade deadline. Sixers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey recently explained how the Sixers intend to approach the trade deadline via ClutchPoints own Sam DiGiovanni.

“We think this year is extremely key. Obviously we can't force any sort of trade that might help the team,” Morey said. “But if all else is equal, we would like to do something earlier. We think that you don't get many chances to have a player like Joel [Embiid] playing at an MVP-plus level. To have a young, up and coming player like Tyrese who continues to improve day by day. And then just a whole bunch of really solid guys that Nick [Nurse] has playing a high level. . .if there's something this year, we'll do it this year because we don't think this year can be taken for granted.”

Judging by Daryl Morey's comments, it's clear that the Sixers will look to be active leading up to the trade deadline. They clearly feel like they have a championship caliber team and will look to maximize their championship window.

The Sixers are currently 6-4 in their last ten games and are sitting in fourth place in the Eastern Conference standings. Their essentially tied though record-wise with the Orlando Magic at 16-7 and only two games back of the East-leading Boston Celtics.