The Ultimate Blockbuster Breakdown: The New Look 76ers
NBA fans woke up this morning with the first blockbuster trade of the 2019 deadline across their phone screens. The Sixers had acquired forward Tobias Harris, center Boban Marjanovic, and forward Mike Scott from the LA Clippers in exchange for rookie guard Landry Shamet, forward Mike Muscala, forward Wilson Chandler, and 4 future draft picks. Here’s what this means for your 76ers, the summer, and the Eastern Conference.
The Star-Studded Starting Lineup
There’s no question that the most valuable asset involved in this trade on either side is Tobias Harris, the 6’8″ forward in his 8th season out of the University of Tennessee. With Harris, Sixers GM Elton Brand went out and got his team a perfect 4th star to round out an already explosive starting lineup on both sides of the ball. Harris, who averages 21 points and 8 rebounds per game, will fill the vacancy created by now-Clipper Wilson Chandler at power forward, arguably the Sixers’ weakest starting lineup spot in terms of production prior to the trade. Harris was on the brink of being nominated by the league as an All-Star reserve this season, with career highs almost all across the board. Probably the most astonishing Harris stat is his 49.6% field goal percentage. For a player who shoots the ball around 16 times a game, that is unprecedented shot accuracy that will translate well in an offense that functions on high efficiency.
Through 8 seasons on 5 different teams, Harris has turned himself into both an unafraid iso-ball scorer with a quick first step as well as a catch-and-shoot threat off of screens. While his defense is still a project, his 6’11” wingspan won’t hurt his potential on that side of the ball. Harris is the all-around utility guy the Sixers needed at the power forward position, and with his arrival in Philly, coach Brett Brown can have 2-3 All-Star caliber players on the floor at all times. The importance of such cannot be understated come playoff time, where Las Vegas now projects the Sixers to have the second best odds at an Eastern Conference title. If you haven’t been watching much of the Harris’ Clippers this season, the video below will show you how he lights it up from the floor on a nightly basis.
2. What Scott and Marjanovic can Contribute
GM Elton Brand made some interesting moves with the two other players he brought to Philly with Tobias Harris. Since the beginning of Joel Embiid’s career, he has never had a backup who Brett Brown can rely on in important stretches of games and the postseason. This was problematic last season as the delicate Embiid often missed long stretches of games with injuries, tightness, and stamina issues. With Marjanovic, Brand has found a solution to this lack of a viable backup, at least in the short term. The tallest current player in the league at 7’3″, Marjanovic has spent most of his career grabbing balls off of the glass and putting them back in the basket, much to the dismay of the players who stand helplessly below him. Marjanovic, however, presents his own limitations. His 7’3″ frame has limited his endurance over his career, and he has averaged just over 10 minutes per game this season for the Clippers.
Mike Scott, the final member of the squad headed to the city of Brotherly Love, should be thought of as comparable to the departing Mike Muscala. Part of what caused Muscala’s struggles on the defensive end was Brett Brown’s push for him to play center while Joel Embiid took a breather. With Marjanovic on the roster, Mike Scott won’t have to deal with these same issues. If anything, on the offensive end, Scott has shot the ball at a far better clip than Muscala at around 40%. You probably won’t see Scott on the floor for more than 15-20 minutes per game at any point in the season, so he most likely won’t be a high-impact player for the Sixers. That being said, neither was Muscala.
3. The New Clippers and the Future
Simply put, Elton Brand made a gamble with a trade like this. What will hurt the team most down the road is the loss of two first round draft picks in 2020 and 2021 being sent to LA in the package. Clippers GM Jerry West is looking towards the future, so there is no doubt that those were the right assets to demand for a player of the caliber of Tobias Harris. Not only this, there is the very real possibility that one or neither of Jimmy Butler and Tobias Harris re-sign with the team this offseason. In a case like this, losing the aforementioned picks as well as promising rookie guard Landry Shamet will hurt even more and devastate the team’s future. For more on Landry Shamet’s rise to stardom, make sure to check out last week’s piece.
Luckily, the likely scenario is that at least one of Butler and Harris re-signs using one of the Sixers’ max contract slots. If Jimmy Butler wants to win as much as he says he does, re-signing with the team this summer is probably in his best interest. In the case that the team makes it out of the tough Eastern Conference or wins a championship (still a long shot), no one would be surprised if both players chose to re-sign. At the end of the day, winning will put a damper on the future-forward assets given up in this trade.
4. Adding the Finishing Touches in the Buyout Market
At this point, Sixers fans have been spoiled. The front office has put together a starting five that looks unstoppable and a bench that, with some work, has serious potential. Players will start getting bought out and thus enter free agency in the next couple of days. Not surprisingly, the always-demanding Sixer fans have been calling for the pickup of a wing who can shoot the 3 with consistency. Guys like Wayne Ellington (Phoenix) and Wesley Matthews (New York) have been discussed as buyout candidates would fit well on a Sixers bench that needs that last guy who can move the needle into the title contention conversation.
Stay tuned on deadline day, Sixer fans. It should be an eventful one.
Featured Image: The Ringer Image 1: ESPN Image 2: Jake Roth / USA Today Sports Image 3: Seth Wenig / AP Photos
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