Sixers continue to pile on by adding James Ennis at trade deadline

With a loaded starting lineup ready for a playoff run, the 76ers have now added some needed bench depth by acquiring James Ennis at the trade deadline.

The Philadelphia 76ers have seemingly been the most active team at the NBA trade deadline thus far.

Early on Wednesday morning, Philadelphia bolstered its already stacked lineup by acquiring Tobias Harris from the Los Angeles Clippers, giving them what appears to be the most dangerous starting five in the Eastern Conference. With a lineup of Harris, Jimmy Butler, Ben Simmons, J.J. Redick and Joel Embiid, it’s pretty clear that Philadelphia has its sights set fully on winning the 2019 NBA championship.

One issue that may still have been a cause for concern for the Sixers, however, was their depth on the bench. Nobody can argue that their starting five is rock solid, but bench depth is something that will undoubtedly come into play down the stretch as well.

On Thursday morning — they day of the deadline — the Sixers made another move to beef up their bench a bit, acquiring journeyman James Ennis from the Houston Rockets, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic.

To the Rockets fans that saw Charania’s tweet and just read the words “Houston is trading James…,” you all can relax. James Harden is not going anywhere.

In a follow-up tweet, Charania noted that the Rockets dealt Ennis for swap rights to a 2021 second-round draft pick.

The Sixers, on the other hand, will be acquiring a player who has logged plenty of minutes for Houston, as Ennis is averaging 23.6 minutes in 39 games played this season (and even starting in 25 of them). He is currently shooting 50 percent from the field and 37.3 percent from 3-point range, a factor that will certainly come in handy for the Sixers as they look to topple the other behemoths in the East, such as Toronto, Milwaukee and Boston.

As the trade deadline comes and goes, and the playoffs continue to draw nearer, it’s looking more and more like Philadelphia will be the biggest threat to come out of the East. Sixers fans trusted the process, and the process appears to be paying off.