A Sixers Trade For Every Team In The NBA: The Northwest Division

Of course Sixers Adam wants to trade Thybulle!!

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Adam Aaronson, whose legal name is Sixers Adam (@SixersAdam on Twitter), covers the Sixers for The Rights To Ricky Sanchez. He has been legally banned from covering the team in person, and when that band was set to be lifted, Covid-19 struck. He believes cantaloupe is the best food in existence, and is brought to you by the Official Realtor of The Process, Adam Ksebe.

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In today’s universe, six weeks ago feels like an eternity. And that is how long I have been going up and down the list of NBA teams, coming up with a Sixers trade to go for each one. Today, we complete the journey by tackling the Northwest Division. 

As always, we will start by getting a couple of more mundane deals out of the way. But the good news is that I saved the most interesting division for last. One final time, let’s do it…

Minnesota Timberwolves

Sixers send: 59th pick

Timberwoles send: Omari Spellmam

A former first-round pick out of Villanova by the Hawks, Spellman had about as rough a start to his career as possible -- he had major struggles staying in shape, leading to the Hawks sending him to the Warriors just one year after selecting him in the first round. He was then a throw-in as part of the D’Angelo Russell-for-Andrew Wiggins trade, and did not suit up for the Wolves for a single minute of action.

There is a chance Spellman is on his way out of the league, but he does possess one skill that will likely afford him additional opportunities to find a landing spot in the pros: his jumpshot. At 6’8” and 240 pounds, Spellman has a sustained (and sustainable) track record as a shooter. There have been lots of ups and downs between his lone year at Villanova and his two chaotic seasons in the NBA. But the only constant is that he can definitely shoot. For a player of his size, that makes him at least maybe worth taking a flier on, especially at a measly $1.9 million salary for next season.

Portland Trail Blazers

Sixers send: Mike Scott

Trail Blazers send: 2022 second-round pick (top-45 protected)

I love Mike Scott. We all love Mike Scott! But for a team about to perennially be in the luxury tax and always in need of the highest-quality bench pieces possible, paying him $5 million next season after the year he had just might not make sense. Portland, however, could definitely use a backup power forward, and they have a trade exception that Scott could fit into if they can’t find any better options.

Denver Nuggets

Sixers send: Zhaire Smith, 34th pick, 36th pick

Nuggets send: Monte Morris

Here’s one I bet nobody else has thought of! Morris has become one of the league’s better backup point guards, doing so on a valuable contract for a Denver team unlikely to be willing to pay the luxury tax at any point. Morris becomes an unrestricted free agent after the 2020-2021 season, though, and with Denver just having paid Jamal Murray the big bucks and being surprisingly close to having to consider a similar deal for Michael Porter Jr., Morris very well may not fit into their long-term plans. If they deal him this offseason, they avoid running the risk of him losing value on the trade market over the winter, when he is reduced to a rental for part of a season. 

In need of cheap young talent like they have had with Morris, the Nuggets would be adding two early second-round picks to go along with a first-round pick that they already have, as well as an upside play in Zhaire, who they were enamored with a few years back and were desperately attempting to trade up for. I think this kind of framework is more realistic than you might think.

Utah Jazz

Sixers send: Al Horford, Zhaire Smith, 2021 second-round pick (via New York)

Jazz send: Mike Conley

The obvious qualifier here is that this trade is only feasible if the Jazz are moving on from Rudy Gobert. But if that becomes the case, a deal surrounding Horford and Conley with some additional compensation going Utah’s way makes all the sense in the world. While he makes even more than Horford and is coming off the worst season of his career, Conley would at the very least bring future financial flexibility to the Sixers, as his contract expires after next season. If things go well and he sees a resurgence of sorts, there is no reason it cannot become a long-term partnership, perhaps one that lasts for the rest of Conley’s career. Similarly, if a change of scenery fails to do any good for Conley and he remains a shell of his former self, the Sixers can let him walk at the end of the year. At the end of the day, they’d still have avoided paying the last three years of the Al Horford deal.

Oklahoma City Thunder

Sixers send: Al Horford, Matisse Thybulle, Zhaire Smith, 22nd pick

Thunder send: Chris Paul

Spike has been torturing me about not getting Matisse Thybulle in any of these trades. Well, here you go. Let the commotion ensue.

I’m expecting quite a bit of blowback here. Matisse Thybulle is a rookie who is undying in his lovable nature. Chris Paul is the annoying guy who calls fouls at your local YMCA games, who is on the books for over $41 million next year, a number that will increase in the following season, what will be his age 37 season. 

You know what else Chris Paul is? An elite facilitator, a basketball genius, the point guard of a generation, an elite off-the-dribble jump-shooter (oh, the Sixers need this!), the NBA’s best clutch scorer this season (oh, the Sixers need this too!), and a player who has without fail made his teammates better for 14 going on 15 years. 

If you read most of my work, you know that I’m generally down on their chances of winning a championship, not just in the short-term but in the long-term as well at this point. Bringing in Chris Paul and putting him with Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid is one of the only things that can be done to make me drastically move off that stance. Is there a chance it flames out Jimmy Butler style? Sure. But what other choice do the Sixers have?