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

Frank Kaminsky?! Harrison Barnes?!

[Photo by Christian Petersen/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-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.

---

Well, folks, I am almost there: only two more divisions to go! Today we travel to the Pacific Division to make some more deals. As always, we’ll start with the less complex trades to get them out of the way before making our way to the bigger deals. Here we go!

Los Angeles Lakers

Sixers send: 34th pick, 49th pick

Lakers send: 29th pick

Here we go again with this Sixers Adam kid doing boring draft trades!!! If you’ve been reading along with these trade pieces, you get the deal by now. If not, here’s what should be my final explanation…

If you draft a rookie in the first round, they are automatically subject to the league’s rookie scale that affords the team up to four years of team control before the player reaches restricted free agency. If you draft someone in the second round, you can attain up to four years of team control, but only if you sign them using cap space or an exception. The Sixers won’t have cap space, and using their exception(s) will be their only path to adding legitimate veteran talent. So, they should be looking to turn at least one of their early second-rounders into a pick at the end of the first round in order to gain the two extra years of control without jeopardizing their free agency chances.

Phoenix Suns

Sixers send: Zhaire Smith, Norvel Pelle

Suns send: Frank Kaminsky, 2022 second-round pick

We have all spent what is now two years imagining Zhaire Smith catching transition lobs from Ben Simmons and shutting down opposing guards for the Sixers. And there is no doubt that trading him for Kaminsky would be a genuine heart-breaker. But what evidence is there that Smith can fetch the Sixers anything more than a satisfactory backup bigman? The Sixers have entered the last two trade deadlines preparing to make a deep playoff run and willing to move mountains to do so. The fact that he has been such an obvious trade candidate and nobody has budged is telling. *sad face*

Los Angeles Clippers

Sixers send: Mike Scott, 36th pick

Clippers send: Rodney McGruder

After trading their first-round pick for Marcus Morris, the Clippers will enter this summer as a team stacked with lofty contracts but only the 57th pick in the Draft. Enter the Sixers, who can use their bevy of early second-round picks to swoop in and potentially grab McGruder, a wing coming off a rough shooting season but with a track record of reliable play. McGruder found himself buried in a Clippers rotation filled with superior guards and wings, but his presence would be a welcomed one in Philly, where anyone who is 6-foot-5 and weighs at least 200 pounds who also has a pulse would be a godsend. The Sixers would be banking on his shot coming back around, but that is far from an unlikely scenario.

Golden State Warriors

Sixers send: Josh Richardson, Zhaire Smith

Warriors send: 2021 first-round pick

When Spike had me come up with some Richardson deals in April -- man, I have written about so many trades already -- this was my outside-the-box option. Here’s some of what I wrote:

“This summer, Golden State will have access to a massive trade exception (an exception that allows them to take a certain-sized salary in without sending any money). They will likely begin hunting for bigger game than Richardson, but he could be a nice fall-back option. Their first-round pick this year will be too high to trade, but they can give up their pick next year, which the Sixers could easily turn and trade immediately (perhaps a three-team deal?), hang onto as midseason trade bait, or even keep in order to bolster the pipeline of young talent. If they held onto the pick, they’d run the risk of Golden State returning to their prior juggernaut form and its value deteriorating rapidly. But it would give them something they have not had in so long: optionality.”

Optionality is the key word there. More than any of the potential positives -- infusing young talent and avoiding Richardson’s next contract, for example -- just having the ability to map out multiple paths to take with an asset, evaluate the pros and cons of each option and then make a decision is not something the Sixers have been able to do since… the Mikal Bridges - Zhaire Smith trade?

Sacramento Kings

Sixers send: Al Horford

Kings send: Harrison Barnes, 2021 second-round pick, 2022 second-round pick

I’m certain you were all expecting Buddy Hield here. And I get it. But let me ask you something. Why on earth would the Kings trade Hield, a historically great shooter entering his second NBA contract, for Horford, coming off the worst year of his career in what was the first of four seasons on what is widely-accepted as an albatross of a contract? Even if the Sixers were to include a first-round pick in the deal, I don’t think it’s enough, and that’s coming from someone who has always been relatively low on Hield.

So… Harrison Barnes, huh? Yeah, it’s not ideal. He’s a ball-stopper on offense and a clear negative on defense. But at least he can make spot up threes and kind of create his own shot? This would be far from a problem-solver for the Sixers, but it would change their problems to perhaps less tightening ones. At this point, that might be all you can hope for in a Horford trade.