The NBA Trade Deadline is coming Thursday, February 5th at 3pm. Are all you Sixers fans excited??? Yeah, me neither. The trade deadline under Sam Hinkie used to be a time for unbridled enthusiasm. Not anymore. The idea of improving the team has been lost in favor of dipping below the luxury tax threshold. Let’s go through the team’s trade deadline history under the ownership of Josh Harris to see what we can see…
2025 – GM Daryl Morey
- KJ Martin, his $8m salary, and 2 second round picks to Detroit for cash: Well that was fun! A pure salary dump of a move that was made even worse by Martin getting the bloated contract in the first place to facilitate a trade.
- Reggie Jackson and a 1st round pick to the Wizards for Jared Butler and four 2nds: This one looks worse than it is because the 1st is a least favorable situation that includes the Thunder this season. If they repeat, it’s the 30th pick. Unfortunately, this was all just to gussy up another salary dump, $3.3m for Jackson.
- Caleb Martin and a 2nd to Dallas for Quentin Grimes and a 2nd: Yet another salary dump that ended up working out great. Martin is barely playing in Dallas and his shot is still completely missing while Grimes is the Sixers 6th man this season and may or may not have a future here.
- Verdict: Finished $367k below the tax line (mission accomplished)
2024 – GM Daryl Morey
- Jaden Springer to Boston for a 2nd: Salary dump but Springer hasn’t panned out so far in the NBA.
- Pat Bev to the Bucks for Cam Payne and a 2027 Milwaukee 2nd: This was a steal considering Doc Rivers wanted Beverly and convinced the Bucks to give up a future 2nd for him. If the Bucks trade Giannis, that pick becomes a likely high 2nd rounder
- Danuel House and a 2nd for a 2nd that will likely never convey: Pure salary dump of $4m. Lovely.
- Fukan Korkmaz and two 2nds to Indy, Marcus Morris and a 2nd to San Antonio, and Buddy Hield to the Sixers: This is the only move in the last 2 years that was designed to at least partially help the team. It was still a salary dump of around $3m though
- Verdict: Finished $755k below the tax line (mission accomplished)
2023 – GM Daryl Morey
- As part of the Josh Hart to the Knicks trade, the Sixers sent Matisse Thybulle to the Blazers while acquiring two 2nds and Jalen McDaniels: This seemed like giving up on a talent too soon, especially when Thybulle started immediately draining shots in Portland, but he had no future here. The real annoying part was Jalen McDaniels not getting any run once he got here accumulating a few DNPs and under 20 minutes in 18 of 24 games. At least Matisse had a singular talent that would have been helpful
- Verdict: Finished $695k below the tax line (mission accomplished)
2022 – GM Daryl Morey
- Ben Simmons, Seth Curry, Andre Drummond, and two 1sts for James Harden and Paul Milsap: Now that is a goddamn deadline trade! Say what you want for Harden’s big game disappearing acts, but getting value for Ben Simmons was a coup, plus we still have picks from when Harden was traded. I always took this as a big win (even if we are still missing a 2027 1st out of it).
- Verdict: 2022, back when deadlines were Deadlines. Sixers paid the tax and felt pretty good about it. It’s funny to think Daryl did this then was neutered at the deadline for the next 3 seasons.
2021 – GM Daryl Morey
- Sixers get George Hill for two 2nd round picks, Terance Ferguson, and Tony Bradley: This one should have worked out better than it did. Hill was supposed to stabilize the backup PG position and provide defense but ended up falling off a cliff and doing neither.
- Verdict: You can’t get what isn’t there. Kyle Lowry was apparently the real target, but the Raptors wanted multiple first round picks for the soon to be free agent. They paid the tax, but the deadline move didn’t pan out.
2020 – GM Elton Brand
- Alec Burks and Glenn Robinson III from Golden State for three 2nd round picks: The idea was to improve around the fringes, but this team was already dead in the water going into the bubble
- James Ennis sent to Orlando for a 2nd round pick: Ennis had a nice time here at first then became inconsistent.
- Verdict: 2020 was basically a lost season with morale being at an all-time low surrounding Ben Simmons’ back injury and Al Horford’s existence. The Sixers didn’t go out and make any bigger moves and ducked the luxury tax by $2m.
2019 – GM Elton Brand
- Landry Shamet, Wilson Chandler, Mike Muscala (sweet boy), two 1sts, and two 2nds to the Clippers for Tobias Harris, Boban, and Mike Scott: The Tobias Harris trade was the Sixers pushing all in for a championship after earlier acquiring Jimmy Butler. It was an overpay and a half, but the Sixers were absolutely going for it
- 2nd round pick swap to the Rockets for James Ennis: Ennis had a shockingly good run despite being goofy as all hell
- Cash to Toronto for Malachi Richardson, Emir Preidzic, and a 2nd: Sure do miss that cash
- Markelle Fultz to Orlando for Jonathan Simmons, a 2nd, and a Thunder top 20 protected 1st: DO YOU REALIZE THIS IS THE BIGGEST TRADE ON THIS LIST???
- Verdict: The Sixers came 4 bounces from possibly validating the haul forfeited for Tobias Harris. It didn’t work out. Going all in feels great at the time, but if it doesn’t work out you realize you are out of chips when you need them later. Ok, back to the Fultz trade. As disheartening as it was to trade him for what seemed like not much at the time, let me remind you that that pick came from the Thunder before it was sent to the Sixers for Jerami Grant. A year later, Mike Muscala would hit two 3s to win a game for the Thunder and allow this pick to convey. The Sixers would use the phantom pick on Tyrese Maxey! …and the still ducked the tax!
2018 – GM Bryan Colangelo
- Nothing
- Verdict: In December, Mr. Big Collar traded Jahlil Okafor, Nik Stauskas, and a 2nd (that would become Nic Claxton) to the Nets for Trevor Booker. Just a pointless, stupid trade to at least mercifully end the Okafor era. Colangelo was under the impression he could burn assets for nothing. Awful.
2017 – GM Bryan Colangelo
- Nerlens Noel traded to the Mavericks for a fake 1st round pick, Andrew Bogut, and Justin Anderson: I can understand making bad deals or misreading a market, it happens. I do not suffer lying though. That’s exactly what Bryan Colangelo did with this trade by labeling the 1st round pick received as such even though it never had any chance of conveying. It was done for him to save face on all the ways he botched Nerlens Noel.
- Ersan Ilyasova and a 2nd to the Hawks for Tiago Splitter and two 2nds: Splitter played an ironic 76 total minutes for the 76ers.
- Verdict: This was the first of two completely nothing deadlines for Colangelo as he began to squander the trove of picks and assets built up for him. I will say, he did earlier make the original Jerami Grant trade that eventually landed Maxey in Philly, but that looked like another fake first rounder at the time.
2016 – GM Sam Hinkie (with Jerry Colangelo)
- Nothing
- Verdict: This nothing is much worse than the previous one. Apparently, a deal was on the table that would have sent Jahlil Okafor to the Celtics for one of Boston’s Brooklyn picks that would eventually become Jaylen Brown. Danny Ainge and Boston agreed to the deal. Sam Hinkie agreed to the deal. Jerry Colangelo was likely the no-vote that killed the deal. Goddamnit.
2015 – GM Sam Hinkie (remember when the trade deadline was one of the best days of the year?)
- Cenk Akyol to Denver for JaVale McGee, ChuChu Mandubum, and a 1st round pick: This one was originally reported like we gave up a 1st round pick to get JaVale McGee…AS IF! This was pure asset building at its finest. There was plenty more…
- KJ McDaniels to the Rockets for Isaiah Canaan (so many As) and two 2nds: McDaniels should have been a Sixer longer, but he famously rejected the Hinkie Special contract to hit free agency sooner. He made more money up front, but was out of the league much sooner than most of the Process drafted vets like TJ McConnell, Robert Covington, and Jerami Grant.
- Sixers trade Michael Carter Williams to Milwaukee for a 1st round pick from Phoenix: There were more moving parts from this trade, but it was a shocker when it happened. Hinkie moved MCW at the top of his value and he quickly tailed off from there
- Verdict: Hinkie blew the doors off at the deadline with two 1sts and two seconds. The 1sts would eventually become Mikal Bridges and Furkan Korkmaz (but Pascal Siakam was the next pick). Hinkie was at his full Scarface montage mode at this point.
2014 – GM Sam Hinkie
- Spencer Hawes to Cleveland for two 2nds, Earl Clark, and Henry Sims: Get them picks! The two 2nds would eventually become Jerami Grant and Vasilije Micic.
- Lavoy Allen and Evan Turner for Danny Granger: Whether the Sixers actually wanted Granger or not, this trade was simply designed to make the team worse. It is a bummer they couldn’t get any value for either.
- Andre Miller to the Wizards, Jan Vesely to the Nuggets, and Eric Maynor and two 2nds to the Sixers: Keep getting them picks!
- 2nd round pick to the Clippers for BJ Mullens: the pick never conveyed and Mullens was out of the league after his stint in Philly.
- Verdict: If 2015 was the Scarface Push it to the Limit montage, this was Tony killing Frank. Hinkie needed to get rid of what was already established first in order to rebuild.
2013 – Tony DiLeo
- Cash to the Sixers for Charles Jenkins: Very creative stuff here.
- Verdict: This was the aftermath of the Andrew Bynum debacle year. Needless to say, the Sixers needed a change.
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