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

Some trades and an apology.

[photo: Tim Warner/Getty Images]

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-192 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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Before I get into this week’s column, I simply wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t address the elephant in the room stemming from last week’s piece, ranking the 20 best foods.

I owe you, the readers, an apology. I should not have ranked cantaloupe as the best food to ever exist. If I knew you all had such grave difficulty accepting the truth, I never would have brought it up. I would have just stuck to recycled takes about cheesesteaks and soft pretzels being “good.” You live and learn, I suppose.

Now that that’s out of the way… introducing a new series here as we at Team Ricky attempt to make our way to the Disney Playoffs: a possible trade the Sixers could make with every team in the NBA. Some will be major, some minor, some in the middle, but they will all be fair and at least somewhat realistic. I’ll try to vary what the Sixers are sending out as much as I can.

Up first is the Southwest Division in the Western Conference.

Memphis Grizzlies

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

Grizzlies send: Tyus Jones, 40th pick

The other four teams in this division are very real possibilities when it comes to Al Horford destinations, so before the run of Horford deals, I got a bit creative here. Jones would be for the Sixers what he has been for quite a while now: a very good backup point guard who can help stabilize an offense, take care of the ball at an excellent level, and put teammates in position to succeed. He is a good player who makes others better, but has seemingly been undervalued throughout the league for most of his career. However, it would likely cost a few legitimate assets to get him, as the Grizzlies can afford to deal him but lack any real incentive to do so unless they are impressed by an offer. The Zhaire experiment ending would be a bummer, and those two second-round picks can be valuable (if the Sixers actually want them to be), but getting such a high-quality backup point guard -- and one on a medium-sized salary at that -- would be worth trading those assets for.

Houston Rockets

Sixers send: Al Horford, 21st pick

Rockets send: Eric Gordon

This one was tough, because in truth I’m not sure how to value Gordon as a trade chip. On one hand, he has a track record of high-level shooting and has been a key cog for Houston over the last few years. On the other, he is coming off his least efficient season in quite a while, has dealt with recent injuries (a theme of his entire career), and is about to enter the first year of a four-year, $75 million extension that guarantees $55 million over three seasons before a non-guaranteed salary in the final year. I dabbled with a few different structures to a swap of Horford and Gordon, but this is the one I eventually landed on, with the Rockets adding a pick and the Sixers still maybe having some bad money on the books, but at least in the form of a player who actually fits nicely with the rest of the roster.

New Orleans Pelicans

Sixers send: Al Horford, Josh Richardson, 21st pick

Pelicans send: Jrue Holiday, Darius Miller

Even if they don’t want to move on from Holiday just yet, New Orleans is a team that probably should be in on the Horford trade talks. His ability to space the floor at the center position and his skill and a passer make him a good fit with Zion Williamson and the rest of the roster in New Orleans. 

The good news is that they do seem willing to move Holiday, who was the center of trade talks during the winter and appears to be attainable for the right price. What is the right price for the Sixers? I initially was going to include Matisse Thybulle here, but I actually think this structure would be more appealing to the Pelicans. They could set themselves up with a core of Lonzo Ball, Richardson, Brandon Ingram and of course Williamson, all surrounded by an accomplished spacer and rim protector in Horford, who should make their lives easier. That, plus their other current young pieces and all of the draft picks they own, makes for a pretty good team down the line. 

Parting with two starters in the same trade wouldn’t be ideal for the Sixers, but if being willing to trade Richardson makes it significantly easier to move Horford, sign me up. As I’ve written before, Josh is a nice player who I enjoy, but is not a good fit in Philly offensively and is up for a new contract next summer.

Dallas Mavericks

Sixers send: Josh Richardson

Mavericks send: Maxi Kleber, Justin Jackson

I was planning on coming up with something built around Horford here, but called an audible after thinking about trading Richardson. As I thought about it, I deemed Dallas to be about the optimal landing spot for Josh, who would not be asked for much perimeter creation at all and could be a real weapon as a versatile guard defender. Luka Doncic is the perfect backcourt mate for Richardson.

And while this return might seem underwhelming on paper, Kleber is the ideal backup center for a Sixers team that will likely ship out Horford one way or another soon. He can protect the rim at a satisfactory level, and is a good enough shooter to even play minutes alongside Embiid as a stretch four. Kleber is not as good as Horford, but is a much smoother fit who would make the lives of Embiid and Ben Simmons much easier. Oh, and he makes about $20 million less per season.

San Antonio Spurs

Sixers send: Al Horford, Zhaire Smith, 36th pick

Spurs send: Patty Mills, Rudy Gay

I suggested Horford and Thybulle for Mills and Gay on Twitter a few weeks back, and as you can imagine, the feedback wasn’t exactly positive. While I still think that trade is more logical than some would like to admit, I decided to tweak it a bit for the sake of unpredictability. 

Horford becoming Mills and Gay would be a bit uninsipiring, or at least unexciting. But it would also be fairly productive. Mills is a combo-guard with excellent shooting ability, while Gay has had a stunning career revival in San Antonio, where he’s turned into a helpful rotation wing. 

I anticipate this will be the least popular of these trades, but I think it might actually be the most logical and reasonable. Turning Horford’s contract into two contributors who fill holes in the roster and are on expiring contracts, for just the price of Smith and a second-round pick, would be a fairly noteworthy bargain in my eyes.