OK. The trade deadline has come and gone. Jahlil Okafor, despite being sent home over a week ago due to an impending trade(!!!), is still on the Sixers and projected to start tomorrow night, at home, in a game the team raised ticket prices for, which now won’t feature Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid or Nerlens Noel. Or Ersan Ilysova, for that matter. It will, however, feature Okafor. Amazing.

Where was I before I got temporarily blinded by the reality of that lede? Ah, right, the Noel trade.

Sixers get:

• The Mavs’ 2017 first round pick (top 18 protected), or their 2017 and 2018 second round picks. Since the Mavs are awful, the Sixers will wind up with the two second round picks. And I suspect the first round protected pick was included just so Bryan Colangelo could save his big, long, Falcon-like face.
• Andrew Bogut. This is essentially a trade conduit, and by all accounts the Sixers will buy him out.
• Justin Anderson. He has reasonable upside, especially on the defensive end. His success may ultimately determine the success of the trade.

Mavs get:

• Nerlens Noel.
• Bryan Colangelo’s dignity.

What to know

Noel was still on his rookie contract and was set to become a restricted free agent after this season, and an unrestricted free agent after next season. That means other teams could’ve made Noel offers (for a minimum of two years) this summer. The Sixers would’ve had three days to match. If they didn’t, Noel would’ve gone to the offering team. [Think what the Predators did when Paul Holmgren threw his dick around and gave Shea Weber an offer sheet.]

If nothing happened this offseason (less likely), then Noel would’ve been a free agent after next season. Most believed he wasn’t too keen on playing in the shadow of his friend, Embiid, and would’ve bolted.

Would the Sixers have matched an offer for Noel?

Hard to say. There really would’ve been little reason not to, however. Cap space is essentially a non-issue for the foreseeable future– the Sixers have ~$50 million committed next season with a cap of ~$100 million, a floor of ~$90 million, and a max of ~$120 million (these are ballparks). Had a team made Noel a sizable offer, it would’ve, in a way, confirmed that there was very much a market for him if things didn’t work out and the Sixers needed to trade him later. Some argue that an offer forcing the Sixers to pay Noel over $20 million per season, ostensibly as a backup center, would’ve been overkill. That’s fair, but there are a few qualifiers here:

1. Embiid is a health risk, and Noel presents a very good insurance policy.
2. He’d be anything but just an insurance policy. Embiid and Noel played together for a total of 8 minutes, and it went well. There’s a chance they could’ve co-existed, and even thrived, on the court at the same time. You can never really have enough superb defensive big men, especially in a league where DeMarcus Cousins and Anthony Davis play on one team.

I’d argue that having Embiid and Noel would’ve been a luxury. Worst case, the Sixers match an offer for Noel that ultimately becomes more than they’re willing to pay and, barring serious injury, they trade him… for some cash dumps and a second round pick, which is more or less what they got for him, plus Justin Anderson.

There is an argument to be made for getting something for a guy whom you don’t think will stick around long-term. But Anderson and two second round picks was hardly an offer the Sixers couldn’t refuse, and before 11 a.m. today no one was seriously calling for Noel to be traded. And certainly no one thought that trading him for a middling haul was the right move. The Sixers simply did not have to trade him now. Anyone who thinks they did is just trying to talk themselves into disappointment. Second round picks are shit.

Don’t people fellate Sam Hinkie for getting second round picks?

You bet. Great BJs. The best! But the difference is Hinkie collected second round picks as a tax for giving other teams cap relief. He got them, in effect, for nothing. Colangelo got two second round picks FOR NERLENS NOEL! That’s basically the same thing he got for Ersan Ilysova, minus Anderson.

Would they have gotten more for Okafor?

Clearly not. Okafor is worse than Noel and had even less value. I argued that the Sixers should’ve taken literally anything for him. He’s an asset causality on a team poised to move forward without him. He was expendable. Noel wasn’t.

So why trade Noel?

Good question! Had the Sixers gotten a first round pick with little-to-no protection, then this would be a different story. They were not under the gun to trade him. They held the cards as to whether he was on the team next season and likely beyond that. They have a comical amount of cap space and could’ve easily matched any offer and given the two centers thing a genuine chance to work, with Ben Simmons and presumably another lottery pick. It would’ve cost them money, sure, but there was nothing in terms of cap constraints that would’ve prevented them from doing so. They still would’ve had ample cap space to improve the roster. Right now, they only have $50 million committed with a cap floor of around $90 million, so either way they’re spending at least that much next season (if you don’t hit floor, the difference between salaries and floor gets split amongst players, but MOST teams go out of their way to hit the floor).

I’m slightly concerned that this trade happened because Sixers ownership isn’t keen on spending a dime more than they have to – hitting the floor and nothing more – and told Colangelo to get anything he could for Noel to avoid the embarrassment of letting him walk to an offer sheet in the offseason. This is the first time I’ve seriously questioned the Sixers’ commitment to building a winning team.

Result

At the end of the day, the ball was in the Sixers’ court. Noel either had to play here another year here or sign an offer sheet and give the Sixers the option to match. Between him, Embiid and Saric, they would’ve had a talented, high-upside frontcourt, with Ben Simmons, high draft picks, and a whole lot of cap space waiting in the wings. Rather, Colangelo, for some reason, let Noel walk for a middling second-year forward and two second round draft picks. Meanwhile, Jahlil Okafor, the poor guy, is still here. That is outrageously disappointing.