The Philadelphia 76ers had quite the draft night on Wednesday. Led by the new President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey and general manager Elton Brand, the Sixers made a couple of big trades to help the roster move forward.
The team had so many issues on the offensive end of the floor trying to properly space for Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons and that was mostly due to a few questionable decisions in the 2019 offseason.
The team let Jimmy Butler go to the Miami Heat and they acquired Josh Richardson in a sign-and-trade situation and they then lost sharpshooter JJ Redick who was so important to what the team did on offense. They then signed big man Al Horford to a 4-year $109 million deal, but the fits from both players just did not work very well on the offensive end of the floor.
“Al Horford is a really good player,” Morey stated early Thursday morning via Zoom. “I know there’s been some buzz around fit and things like that, but honestly, we tried to sign him with my past team. I don’t like how that went down here, because he’s very good. Josh Richardson the same.”
So, Morey flipped Horford to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Danny Green and Terrance Ferguson and he then sent Richardson to the Dallas Mavericks for sharpshooter Seth Curry. The Curry acquisition is official so Morey could speak on him, but the Horford-Green deal is not yet complete so he could not officially talk about Green just yet.
“I think the theme of the night was with Seth Curry and I can’t really talk about that other player was to try and improve the fit,” explained Morey. “We went in with a goal of increasing our flexibility. The first move we did allowed the second move with Seth. If we don’t do the first one, then the second one isn’t possible. Having a truly elite shooter changes the dynamic for Ben and Joel.”
For Simmons and Embiid to thrive as they did in the past, they need the proper floor spacing. With these moves, the Sixers now have two elite shooters in Green and Curry who can provide the proper spacing the team now needs in order for them to succeed.
“Those who watch the Sixers up close and personal know that when Joel and Ben have had that, it’s actually insane how good those teams played when everyone was healthy,” Morey finished with. “That was really the theme for the night. Getting Seth, you could argue he’s the best shooter in the NBA. It’s really exciting.”
The hope now is that these new additions will help the team officially move forward and they can forget about a tough 2019-20 season where the team fell short of any expectations. [lawrence-related id=39258,39253,39250]