5 reckless trades to overhaul the Philadelphia 76ers

A dramatic overhaul seems like it could be coming to the Philadelphia 76ers. The staff of The Step Back put together five of our favorite trade ideas.

A disastrous playoff appearance has put the Philadelphia 76ers in a tough spot. They are already looking for a new head coach and trade rumors are beginning to swirl (including about their reported interest in a Mike D’Antoni-James Harden combination). They may try to roll it back next year but the idea that they’re open to all sorts of possibilities is the perfect prompt for some trade machine creativity.

Here, our staff put together a few of their favorite ideas to reshape the roster.

F•R•I•E•N•D•S

If the Philadelphia 76ers truly are open for business, the Gersson Rosas and Minnesota Timberwolves should be the team that keeps their phone lines the busiest. The Wolves need a third star — to go along with D’Angelo Russell and Karl-Anthony Towns — if they want to compete in the Western Conference and few players would complement them as nicely as Simmons. The Wolves hold a number of quality assets, including the first overall pick in the 2020 Draft, the pending cap relief that is James Johnson, as well as Josh Okogie and Jarrett Culver. The Wolves could even toss in their second first-round pick to give the Sixers more shots at finding a star. Also, Russell, Towns, and Simmons are friends, which, obviously, is super duper important.

— Lucas Seehafer (@seehafer_)

The challenge trade

Like Lucas, I’ll stick with Minnesota as the ideal Sixers trade partner, but lets up the ante a bit.

A defense built around Karl-Anthony Towns and D’Angelo Russell will hemorrhage approximately 350 points per 100 possessions. Meanwhile, the Sixers may be too far gone to successfully build a title contender around Simmons/Embiid after handing a combined $289 million to Tobias Harris and Al Horford last summer.

That’s the recipe for a challenge trade involving a swap of star big men.

Embiid and Russell briefly played together in high school at Montverde Academy, and the two are far more natural fits on both ends of the floor than Simmons/Embiid and Russell/Towns. While the Sixers would miss Embiid’s rim-protection, Towns’ high-volume 3-point shooting would perfectly complement Simmons’ offensive skill set. Throw in Culver as a potential 3-and-D sweetener for the Sixers — they’d likely balk at Towns-for-Embiid straight up — and this deal could help both teams build more functional rosters around their remaining star.

— Bryan Toporek (@btoporek)

Do it for the culture

The need-for-change sentiment roiled in the Philadelphian subconscious for the past two seasons. The 76ers’ playoff disappointments and clunky fit have become untenable. The town just ain’t big enough for both Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons. Embiid’s charisma combined with Simmons’ 3-point cowardice makes me feel like the front office would part with their franchise point guard before their franchise center.

Sure, the odds of this deal actually consummating are infinitesimal but it’s 2020. It’d only be the 329th craziest thing to happen this year. And while Rockets fans presumably would rather brush their teeth with a fork than pair Simmons with Russell Westbrook, we’re focusing on the Sixers here.

Bringing it to fruition would be beautiful just to watch the world burn. Talking heads would go full Chernobyl on air. Bloggers would lose their collective minds, first writing waves of contrarian pieces before about-facing to a rush of counter-contrarian takes (which are just regular takes), before coming full circle and reaching contrarian singularity. And Twitter. Oh, Twitter. It’d all be *chef’s kiss* delicious — especially if Mike D’Antoni followed Harden to the city of Brotherly Love.

— Paul Centopani (@PCentopani)

The less change, the better

The Sixers have a lot of wrongs to right, but how many can be rectified in one offseason? And at that, how much should we trust this front office to remedy its own blunders (all of which were made in approximately a two-year span, mind you)?

It’s obvious that Embiid, Horford and Simmons as a trio is untenable. But Horford still fills a valuable role as Embiid’s backup, and will often be called on to start throughout the long regular season slog (especially if the schedule is more condensed next season). In addition, two of the three at a time could work with the right lineups around them.

Harris is a poor fit with Simmons and Embiid unless he starts shooting 3s in volume. But no one’s salivating to take his contract on; he’s got four years and $147.3 million left. It may be in Philly’s best interest to hold onto him, because the cost of offloading him probably makes the team worse than it is with him on the roster. If that’s not enough to quell the ire of Sixers fans, consider that he’s also a great person who is doing a hell of a job in the community and on social media.

That leaves Richardson as the most reasonable trade candidate. He didn’t have a great season in Philly, but he’s still a good utility piece on a reasonable deal. He’s ideally the fourth or fifth option on a contender, only asked to play outside a 3-and-D role on occasion. His contract makes him even more attractive; no contender would have to fork over a huge salary in a trade.

The Brooklyn Nets have a surplus at the guard spot, a position that the Sixers desperately need help with. Dinwiddie would give them their best source of perimeter offense since Jrue Holiday, immediately making the Sixers’ offense functional at worst and excellent at best. Not to mention, both Simmons and Embiid would have—you guessed it—a pick-and-roll partner!

A trade between two contenders in the same conference is admittedly weird, but desperation ignites change. It’s time for the Sixers to admit that competent point guards are important.

— Alec Liebsch (@OwlecNBA)

Finnishing The Process

If the 76ers are going to dive into the trade market they have a number of issues they could try to address — a lack of shooting, the weird fit between Simmons and Embiid and the weighty contracts of Al Horford and Tobias Harris. This deal does at least something to address all three. For the 76ers, Markkanen is vastly different and very interesting fit, adding an elite frontcourt shooter to play off Embiid, whose rim-protection can help cover for Markkanen at the other end. If Porter can somehow return to form, he’s useful as a shooter and defender on the wings. If not, his deal, even with the player option, is a two years shorter than Horford’s.

For the Bulls, they get the depth, talent and defensive acumen to potentially leap into the middle of the Eastern Conference playoff picture next season. Simmons can go back to handling the ball, with Coby White and Zach LaVine playing off him as floor-spacers and secondary creators. Richardson is a 3-and-D upgrade and Horford adds big man depth. Simmons and Wendell Carter Jr. could be a special defensive frontcourt and the Bulls could focus on using their first-round pick this year on more wing depth.

— Ian Levy (@HickoryHigh)