The NBA trade deadline is this Thursday afternoon, and the Philadelphia 76ers find themselves at a crossroads. With Joel Embiid looking more and more like himself on the offensive end of the floor with each passing day, Daryl Morey and the Sixers' brass had to be contemplating the idea of making a splashy trade to try and win now.
News broke this week that Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks could be parting ways ahead of the deadline. Jake Fischer of The Stein Line reported that the Sixers are a team that is of interest to the Greek Freak.
Then the bombshell dropped on Saturday that Paul George is going to be suspended for 25 games for violating the NBA's anti-drug policy, and everything suddenly got a lot murkier for the Sixers in the hours leading up to the deadline. Now they may feel more pressured to make a move to maintain their playoff positioning rather than something that they think would put them over the top.
Whatever route they decide to go, they probably have to revert course from what they intended before the news came out of George's suspension. They are running out of time to make a decision and are incurring the risk of said decision being both rash and hasty. With the new reality the Sixers find themselves in, here are three reasons why it behooves them now more than ever to stay put at the trade deadline and keep things the way they are.
Make no mistake about it, the Sixers would rather have Paul George on the court right now and be working to tidy up their finances ahead of the deadline elsewhere. However, as outlined by our own Zach Ciavolella, with George's suspension and lost money, the Sixers will be less than $1.3 million above the tax line. Now, the Sixers are basically just an Andre Drummond dump away from getting below the line, which is important to the Sixers' ownership group, and would not throw a wrench into the rotation.
The Sixers, as currently constructed, while better than they were expected to be coming into the year, are not a title contender. Their margin for error just got smaller as they will be without their best perimeter defender and increasingly reliable tertiary scoring option. They risk depleting that margin entirely if they make a move that does not work out the way they intend—such as when they traded for Buddy Hield or Jalen McDaniels.
If Daryl Morey thinks the Sixers have a real chance of falling out of the playoffs, he cannot be faulted for making a move to try to ensure otherwise. Given how Tyrese Maxey has played all year, Joel Embiid's return to form, and the contributions they have gotten from VJ Edgecombe as a rookie, it would be pretty damning at this point if they were to miss the playoffs. And while George's suspension does not help the current on-court chemistry, adding someone new into the fold that has to assume a role, learn how to play off the other guys, and try to be a part of winning basketball is too difficult to find with their backs against the wall.
Even before George's suspension, there was no pressing need for the Sixers to commit to one timeline this year. Usually, two-timeline approaches are by design, but the Sixers lucked into theirs, and they should not be rushing to change something that came about so organically.
This year was supposed to be about seeing what Tyrese Maxey could do when given the keys and also seeing what they had in VJ Edgecombe. With Quentin Grimes and Jared McCain returning, the younger timeline was the only one in mind. Nobody expected Joel Embiid and Paul George to both get back to the level they have played at this year, and that changed the trajectory of the team.
Having the old guard play prominent roles for the squad and unlock that other timeline is a great problem for the Sixers to have because it took pressure off Maxey and Edgecombe, even if it did not necessarily lead to winning at a noticeably higher clip to this point. Assuming George looks even healthier when he returns from suspension with 10 games left in the regular season, the Sixers should just let this year play out with the roster they have. If Embiid and George head into the offseason playing as they have recently, their trade value will be exponentially higher than it was just last summer, too.
Tyrese Maxey is smart enough to know two things: this is not the year for the Sixers to try and win it all, and he has a special backcourt running mate for the long term in VJ Edgecombe. There is no need to change the picture around them as they continue to establish chemistry with one another and envision a near future where they are leading this team to new heights.
Tyrese Maxey lost his smile last year while the Sixers as a team were fighting through their worst season of his career. He genuinely seems happy again this year, and that is something the organization cannot take for granted because he is their present and future. While he has shown some signs of wear and tear after being run into the ground early on in the season, he has still played at a fringe MVP level and deserves the opportunity to see this year through.
There will be plenty of opportunities in the years ahead to refocus a newly imagined roster around the star backcourt. Maxey is going to continue to get better as he enters his prime, and the sky is the limit for VJ Edgecombe. But making sure Edgecombe stays comfortable in his role as he continues to learn the grind of the NBA and, more importantly, making sure Maxey keeps his smile should be the top priority for the Sixers this year. The easiest way to accomplish that is by not changing the rotation, the urgency, or the expectation via trade.
