The Philadelphia 76ers have been a middling team and that is not what was expected of them when they signed Al Horford in free agency and Josh Richardson in a sign-and-trade. They believed that they would be title contenders and they very well could be as we have not seen what they can do in the playoffs, but it’s very rare that a 6 seed wins an NBA title.
So, the Sixers could explore trade options for Horford and even Tobias Harris who is signed to a big deal. Philadelphia would most likely have to attach another trade asset on to one of those players, but if they can move Horford for a shooter, it would be a big help for them.
The Detroit Pistons could be a legitimate trade partner due to the fact that they have a ton of cap space that they can absorb. As pointed out by The Athletic’s James Edwards III, the Pistons could absorb that deal and give Philadelphia some shooting as well:
We haven’t seen it in the playoffs yet, but the 76ers-Horford experiment hasn’t gone to plan. The big man hasn’t really carved out his space offensively since joining Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons, as there is some redundancy and overlap on that end of the floor with this team.
Horford is still a good NBA player, but he’s 33 years old and just signed a four-year, $109 million contract last summer. At some point, the 76ers will try to trade him.
Philadelphia needs shooting, and the Pistons have it in Luke Kennard. Maybe Detroit could get multiple picks back if it were willing to give up Kennard, a former lottery pick, in the deal. This doesn’t seem wise from the Pistons’ perspective — the 76ers would not be giving up a lottery pick in return — but multiple first-round picks could move the needle.
Horford has helped the Sixers in a big way on the defensive end and whenever Joel Embiid needs a break, but the fit with him and Ben Simmons has been a train wreck on the offensive end. Philadelphia needs to try and find a suitor for him and Detroit could be just that team despite their rebuild. If anything, he can be a mentor for their younger guys or they could then flip him to a contending team.
The team, obviously, needs shooting and a guy like Luke Kennard could help in that regard in a big way. He was shooting 39.9% from deep in the 2019-20 season, but he only played in 28 games due to a knee injury. Philadelphia showed interest in him at the deadline before making the move to acquire Alec Burks and Glenn Robinson III. [lawrence-related id=31007,30999,30993]