Somebody tell Ed Stefanski to do this
I have stumbled upon a trade for the Sixers that I think works for all parties involved and helps with the Sixers’ dreadful 3-point shooting problem. Please see the below image which I yanked from ESPN’s trade machine:
Somebody, somehow, please inform the front offices of Philadelphia, Chicago, Charlotte, and Minnesota that this trade is something that would help all of them.
As a long-suffering Philadelphia 76ers fan (bordering on perhaps delusional), I believe that this team is a player or two away from making some playoff noise, and those two players needn’t be marquee stars - they just need to be able to space the floor and improve the 76ers’ league-worst 3-point shooting. This trade does that, and gives other teams some things they need in the process.
Minnesota: They have already put Randy Foye at SG and have poor Al Jefferson and some corpses playing C. This will give them a true center and allow big Al to work at his natural position at PF. The problem will be the glut of forwards that remain (Carney, Brewer, Love, Smith, Madsen, Cardinal, Love, Gomes), but they have that problem anyway with or without this trade, and this doesn’t ADD to the problem (it should definitely help Jefferson play more in-position).
Charlotte: A paper swap. Coach Larry Brown hates Sean May anyway, and while Rashad McCants is terrible, he costs less than May and also comes off the books at the end of this season. Get May out of the locker room now, play McCants (or not) in a backup position and save about $40k in these troubling financial times.
Chicago: Everybody knows they have too many guards in Chicago, and that Gordon is very likely going to walk at the end of this season. So, might as well invest time in what you’re likely going to have to work with (Rose, Hinrich, Sefolosha, and Hughes), rent May’s giant body for the 2nd half of the season so you can have an extra big, and have a willing reserve in place in Willie Green to ride the bench while you develop the four more talented guys. Admittedly, this is the least attractive aspect of the trade for any of the teams in this proposal, but Chicago can’t keep playing a five-player guard rotation for players who all think they deserve starters’ minutes. Philadelphia probably could/should throw in its first-round draft pick here as well to sweeten the deal. (UPDATE: I just read on TrueHoop that Larry Hughes wants to be traded. This is actually perfect. Why? Because the Bulls need to showcase him to get some team to bite at a trade and take on his massive contract, and will have a plausible excuse to do so if BG is out of the picture).
Philadelphia: This is the no-brainer part of the equation. You’re trading size for perimeter shooting, which I’m okay with - Brand trailing the break is a much better option than trying to keep up with it, and Dalembert, while a fine player, is not so invaluable that Philly couldn’t cope with playing a little small. After this trade, the Sixers’ stable of bigs would feature the soon-to-return Elton Brand (sliding into the starting center position) backed up by a core of bigs consisting of Young, Speights, Evans, Marshall, and Ratliff. Not a dream team, but not total chopped liver either; they could totally manage with that crew. And then as far as perimeter shooting, Gordon and Mike Miller are obviously two of the players most capable of hitting the long-ball on teams that are very likely willing to part with them.
We have so much talent on the floor but we’re crippling it by asking our players to fill roles that they shouldn’t be asked to fill - keep Andre Miller at PG, start Gordon at the SG, move Iggy back to the SF (where he belongs), move Thad back to PF (he’s undersized but overquicked and did well here last year), and Brand at C (which would free him up to work inside and remove the obstacle that is the giant Dalembert). That will give you a very strong bench of Mike Miller, Lou Williams, Maresse Speights, and Reggie Evans, for a much more solid 9-man rotation. Just like Phoenix in its golden days had its “Seven-Starter” lineup (with Diaw and Barbosa the honorary “starters”), this too would be something like a seven-starter lineup, with Lou Williams filling out the PG/SG backup and Mike Miller playing backup SG/SF, with Speights and Evans coming in as backup bigs to Young and Brand.
As for long-term plans for Gordon and Mike Miller, Gordon’s contract expires at the end of this year, which is fine, because Mike Miller and Lou Williams (along with passable 3rd-stringer Royal Ivey) would be there for the minutes if the 76ers didn’t want to give Gordon a new contract. At the very least, Gordon would get to showcase with full starter minutes on a team that desperately needs 3-point shooting, improve a team to (hopefully) get it into the playoffs, and probably improves his chances of getting paid somewhere else in the process.
If Gordon demands a longer-term contract before agreeing to the trade, I’d give it to him - I bet he’d accept a lot less than he was asking the Bulls for. He knows by now that he’s not going to get mega-millions for being an undersized 2 anyway. We have five players coming off the books this year, and with Andre Miller potentially leaving town this offseason, we may have some money to give Gordon a bit of a two-three year contract and a raise and still attract a point-guard-of-the-future (or trade Mike Miller for a pretty good one).
And in regard to Mike Miller, if the 76ers keep him for the last year of his contract (and jettison Gordon), that would give the 76ers time to continue to work him into the core of players, as he’s a solid starting option at the 2.
With all of the teams I mentioned floundering, this is a way for some teams to save some money, ship off unwanted players, clear logjams, and put players at their proper positions, all while adding talent that complements their existing rosters and giving every team a little more hope for the future…but especially mine.
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