The Sixers made a couple of trades right as Thursday’s deadline came to a close, and as usual, the moves were about the future more than they were about improving in the present.
Philadelphia traded reigning Rookie of the Year Michael Carter-Williams to the Bucks, as part of a three-team deal that netted the Sixers the Lakers’ (top-five protected) 2015 first round draft pick that was owed to the Suns.
Carter-Williams still needs to develop, but has already shown he’s capable of being an NBA-caliber starting point guard. It was curious, then, to see the Sixers hit the reset button once more, but GM Sam Hinkie said that the rare availability of a high lottery pick was simply too tempting to pass up.
From John Finger of CSN Philly:
What got Hinkie to release his grip on Carter-Williams was the chance to get the Lakers’ top-5 protected first-round pick. At 13-40, the Lakers are headed for the lottery this June. Looking at it linearly, the Sixers gave up the No. 11 pick of the 2013 draft for possibly the No. 6 pick in the 2015 draft. Then it’s top-3 protected the next two years, then unprotected after that.
Was it worth it?
“It is impossibly hard to get your hands on a pick that at least has the chance to be a high lottery pick,” Hinkie said. “It’s very rare that they move and because of that, we considered it and decided it was the best way to move our program forward.” …
“It’s not about Michael at all. I think Michael has a very bright future in this league, and I think will do quite well and we wish him the best,” Hinkie explained. “It’s still necessary for someone to look at the tough decisions we have to make to try to move our program forward.”
Carter-Williams has struggled with his shot in his first season-plus, which may be the underlying reason Hinkie pulled the trigger this quickly.
From Tom Moore of Calkins Media:
Hinkie: ‘For us to be among the best teams, you have to be able to shoot from 3.’
Carter-Williams simply can’t do that yet; his field goal percentage has dropped since last year, and he’s currently at just 38 percent for the season, which includes a mark of only 25.6 percent from three-point distance.
Meanwhile, the K.J. McDaniels trade to the Rockets may be even more frustrating for Sixers fans to deal with. McDaniels is a superb athlete and a legitimate defensive presence, and the type of player on a reasonable contract that a team would seem to want to rebuild around. And yet, he was dealt for nothing more than a point guard in Isaiah Canaan and a future second round pick.
“We traded K.J., who we are proud of, who we got in the 30s and we got back a mid-30s in the past and a mid-30s in the future,” Hinkie said. “In the end it came down to a trade we felt we had to do and it came down to the last four minutes.”
That’s just plain weird; Hinkie made a point of saying during his press conference that he’s “never in my life called a player an asset,” but when looking at them solely in terms of their draft position, it’s hard to believe that’s actually the case.
At some point, Philadelphia will need to begin developing the talent they have, instead of constantly searching for an upgrade by trading talented players for future draft picks; the team’s fans (and ownership) are likely to only be patient with this process for so long.
