Michael Carter-Williams took home Rookie of the Year honors a season ago, but the Sixers decided he wasn’t in their long-term plans before he could finish his second year with the franchise.
Philadelphia traded Carter-Williams to Milwaukee, as part of the three-team deal that sent Brandon Knight to Phoenix. The Suns gave up the first round draft pick owed to them by the Lakers, which is top-five protected this season but will end up being utilized by the Sixers eventually.
The temptation of the high lottery pick (and its rare availability) is what ultimately caused Philadelphia to pull the trigger on dealing Carter-Williams, and it was reportedly what the team was seeking in exchange for its award-winning point guard in advance of the draft last summer.
It will be several seasons before we know if the Sixers made the right decision, but Carter-Williams will have his first chance to prove his former team wrong when he faces them in his Bucks debut on Wednesday.
From Charles F. Gardener of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Newly acquired Milwaukee Bucks point guard Michael Carter-Williams said he plans to make his debut on Wednesday night against his former Philadelphia 76ers team. …
After the game Carter-Williams, who has been out with a sprained right big toe since joining the Bucks in a three-team deal at Thursday’s trade deadline, said his inactivity was about to end.
“I’ll be playing next game,” Carter-Williams said. “I don’t know how many minutes I’ll be playing.”
Announcement: Pro Basketball Talk’s partner FanDuel is hosting a one-day $250,000 Fantasy Basketball league for Tuesday’s NBA games. It’s $25 to join and first prize is $20,000. Starts at 7pm ET on Tuesday. Here’s the FanDuel link.
This isn’t exactly an Isaiah Thomas versus the Suns situation; Carter-Williams is young and needs time to develop, and the Sixers simply decided to go in a different direction rather than continue to keep him around. But it does add an interesting wrinkle to his first game with his new team nonetheless.