The Philadelphia 76ers trading James Harden was not the end of the hard work they have to do in order to become a championship-level team — it’s the beginning. President of basketball operations Daryl Morey and the Sixers' front office will now turn its attention to using the assets they got from LA into a player who can help the team compete for a title.
In an interview with the Rights to Ricky Sanchez podcast, Morey stated that he would prefer to make a trade for someone who can boost the team ahead of the February 8 trade deadline. He named two key traits that a trade candidate should have.
“Look, we won't get our dream guy, almost for sure. We'll probably have to get something and make it work,” Morey said. “But I would say, first off, they need to be pretty solid on both ends. As you get into the playoffs, it gets very hard for your top guys to be elite one way. It has worked but it's very rare, though. The other thing would be we probably need them to have a bit of a playmaking, sort of connector, ball-movement aspects. We are a little short on that and it becomes more important in the playoffs, as well.”
Morey explained that the Sixers can’t be too picky because the trade market is only bound to have a couple of high-level options. While the season has to unfold a bit more to see who's truly going to be available for trade, there are already a few players who seem bound to hit the trade block this winter.
One guy who fits Morey's description and could be available at the deadline is Pascal Siakam, whose Toronto Raptors don’t look to be very competitive this season. With Scottie Barnes taking over as the guy there, Toronto could offload Siakam before he potentially leaves in free agency. Raptors president Masai Ujiri can be very tough to read when it comes to trades he could make, though, and he might not be so keen to trade his veteran star to a conference rival that just hired the head coach he fired.
Klay Thompson, who has yet to sign an extension with the Golden State Warriors, could also be an option. Although he's not much of a playmaker, his championship pedigree and talents as a shooter and defender would make him appealing even as the 33-year-old loses a step or two due to age. Charlotte Hornets forward Gordon Hayward also comes with age and injury concerns but is a well-rounded veteran who could be even better with Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey lightening his workload.
Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan of the downtrodden Chicago Bulls don’t have sterling reputations as defenders, so they may not be Sixers targets, either. Philly is big on maintaining flexibility and LaVine has a contract that has at least two more years on it, so he's probably out for that reason. Recent rumors from Chicago suggest that they don’t want to trade their star shooting guard, anyway.
Morey has indicated that the Sixers having oodles of cap space — they can clear over $55 million in cap space by renouncing certain players — gives them flexibility that can effectively help them improve the team. It was apparent in the agreed-upon package for Harden, which netted Philly four players who all have expiring contracts and draft picks.
However, Morey said that the Sixers aren’t definitely going to look to re-sign the player they may trade for at the deadline. His response was more suggestive that Philly is simply going to maintain its flexibility for as long as it can, not that whoever they get is 100 percent just going to be a rental.
“I would say you would want to go in feeling good about it,” Morey said of trading for a star that the Sixers would intend to sign to a contract extension. “But I don't think you can go ahead with [the mindset that] it has to happen because you can make mistakes. Like, because it's a cap room type situation, you want to keep the optionality alive, you know?”
The Sixers making the Harden trade so early in the season gives them a better, longer look at how Embiid and Maxey work together. It may only be a few months before they have to work to integrate a new star into the rotation. Just who that star might be is still a mystery at this point.
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