Can Danny: The Sixers are on the clock.
This is one of the hardest NBA drafts to peg in some time. Players could fall because the teams that should pick them already have a similar player on their roster. The middle of the lottery features pretty much nothing but flawed power forwards and centers and any team needed a backcourt player is going to have to make a reach or trade down. And, most importantly, teams might be hesitant to make big trades because the draft happens a week before free agency begins. Teams with expiring contracts will probably be holding onto them for a sign-and-trade so they'll have to sit out the draft whelling & dealing.
One of the hardest teams to peg is Philly. They should probably just take Evan Turner but Turner is basically a mirror image of Andre Iguodala - ball control shooting guards with shaky perimeter games. They'd love to dump Elton Brand's contract but nobody seems like they're going to bite on that. They could deal Iguodala but they basically shot his trade value to shit this mid-season when they were pretty much looking to dump him for nothing. They can't deal him for Minnesota's pick because Minny doesn't have the expiring contracts to make the deal work. They have some nice young talent and expiring contracts but because Iggy and Brand make so much, it's unlikely that the team would want to take on another big contract. GM Ed Stefanski hasn't been in charge for long and has already painted himself into a corner.
Anyway, I've wasted a lot of time trying to figure out deals for this so I thought, before finishing up my latest mock draft, I'd throw out what I thought the Sixers should look for.
The Sixers have a lot of options but, honestly, I just don't really love any of them. They could look to dump Iggy for an expiring deal and a lotto pick (AK-47 and #9, Tayshaun Prince and #7) but I'm not sure if his trade value is high enough to get these teams to agree to those deals and I'm also not loving the guys available there, especially if it's going to cost the Sixers their best player. Swapping Iguodala out for another player is tough because most guys they could get are just as flawed as the late lotto picks. Iggy for Al Jefferson is intriguing but I'm just not sold on Big Al.
The SIxers can't even really just blow it up because their young guys aren't THAT good. I'm actually a fan of Jrue Holiday, Thad Young, and Marreese Speights but it's not like those are guys that you want to depend on for the future well-being of your franchise. Solid players, yes. But even with someone like Evan Turner, they might not be better than the current Indiana Pacers lineup. The Sixers need a star (or another star if, like me, you're a believer in Iguodala) but they can't really get that until they dump Brand and dumping Brand seems pretty damn difficult. At best, they can swap out Brand for another overpaid stiff but that doesn't really solve anything.
And all of the above issues come to a head when dealing with Sam Dalembert's expiring deal. Sure, expiring contracts are usually a great way to add talent but the Sixers might not want to add a contract if they can't dump Brand and their young guys aren't really good enough to warrant a true star in a deal. Maybe Sam, Thad Young, and Lou Williams in a deal for Vince Carter but, after Vince's performance so far against the Celtics, would you want to give up Thad and Lou Willz for Vince? They might be able to swap out Sam and Elton Brand's contract for a worse deal, like Emeka Okafor's, but I'm not sure what that gets them. I was thinking about Sam, Brand. Speights, and Thad for Okafor and David West but I'm not sure New Orleans would give up West for that. Iggy and Brand for Dalembert and West? Perhaps, but I don't love how Andre fits with that lineup.
So what's the decision? Honestly, I don't know. I've racked my brain over this for a week or so now and still can't come up with anything I like. The deal I settled on was a three team deal with Detroit getting Al Jefferson and Ramon Session, the Wolves getting Iggy and fodder, and the Sixers getting Tayshaun Prince's expiring deal and #7 pick but I think there are countless reasons why that wouldn't happen or why each team would turn it down.
In the end, I think the Sixers will probably just take Derrick Favors but they should probably just take Evan Turner and then see what they can work out later in the offseason. If GM Ed Stefasnki works the phones enough, he should be able to find some deals to make the Sixers better. I'm just not sure he's creative enough to pull it off.
