Jeez man, the Sixers are going for it. They are REALLY going for it.

I woke up this morning expecting to transcribe Landry Shamet quotes regarding the bogus offensive foul he was whistled for last night, only to find out he’d been shipped to the Clippers for Tobias Harris, Boban Marjanovic, and Mike Scott.

My initial gut reaction is that the Sixers did not “win” this trade on paper, because they gave up two future 1st round picks and a rookie with a ton of upside for a guy who is about to be an unrestricted free agent. That’s a really steep price.

But what they did do is construct the Eastern Conference’s best starting five right now, an outrageous lineup that looks like this:

  1. Ben Simmons at point guard (6’10”)
  2. JJ Redick at shooting guard (6’4″)
  3. Jimmy Butler at small forward (6’8″)
  4. Tobias Harris at power forward (6’9″)
  5. Joel Embiid at center (7’2″)

That lineup can do pretty much anything.

Redick, Butler, and Harris can shoot. Embiid can do… well, everything. Simmons will be facilitating for four studs.

Harris now gives you stretch four capability as a 43% three point shooter who is not Rudy Gobert on the defensive end, but certainly gives you more than Wilson Chandler, Mike Muscala, and Dario Saric did. He’s going to improve the team both offensive and defensively in the playoffs, probably to the point where the only starting five matchup issue you really have with Boston and Toronto is those two teams picking on Redick.

Harris really is an underrated player, a borderline All-Star who was moved to the Clippers last year as part of the Blake Griffin trade. He’s currently shooting at a career high from the field (49.6%) and his 2018-2019 free throw percentage is up to 87.7%, which is five percentage points above his career average. He moves well for a big guy, has a smooth stroke, and he operates very well as a pick and roll ball-handler, which means you now have two guys who might not be super familiar with the motion offense that Brett Brown likes to run. We all know the struggles Butler has had finding his way into a system that involves a lot of transition and dribble hand-off at the expense of PNR.

Check it:

You’ve seen Brett open up the playbook a bit more in recent weeks. You’ve seen more pick and roll and the experimental Butler at point guard look. You will see more of this with Harris in the fold.

He scored 34 points last night, his final Clippers game, and it’s a super fun clip to watch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kB0H_0oI2HY

But Brett has his work cut out for him. Holy shit. He’s got two months to get this thing clicking, and if that happens, they should be able to match up with any squad in the east, even Toronto. You’re looking at five guys who are all averaging at least 17 points per game, which is the only starting five in the entire league to hit that mark.

The addition of Boban Marjanovic and Mike Scott in the trade beefs up your front court depth, which was a big area of need.

Boban is massive at 7’3″, a huge rim protector who played pretty well against the Sixers earlier this season. Brett likes him as a player, and said this back in November about how they tried to attack him defensively:

“Moving him around and pulling him out were things. I’ve always felt like this; he’s really good. Everybody sort of looks at his size and I look at so much more with his skill package. He can pass. He makes free throws. He works hard. I know him from my Spurs friends, and they just loved him. He was a tremendous teammate and a great worker and we just tried to take him and move around, like you say, go side to side and pull Joel and let him trust his three point shot. You don’t need to wrestle on a back down with Boban.

Scott has played 52 games off the bench and averages 5 and 3. You probably remember him from the Wizards last season and his years with the Hawks before that.

I still think the rest of the bench is a massive concern for the Sixers, especially with Markelle Fultz and Zhaire Smith continuing to be total question marks. Shake Milton has a broken finger and Shamet is gone.

Your bench options are now:

  • T.J. McConnell
  • Jonah Bolden
  • Boban
  • Mike Scott
  • Haywood Highsmith (two-way)
  • Furkan Korkmaz
  • Amir Johnson
  • Justin Patton (???)

That’s not gonna work. You need a Wesley Matthews type badly, a buyout market wing who can give you something off the pine. Maybe the Sixers re-sign Corey Brewer for the rest of the season after the trade deadline passes and waive both Amir and Furkan instead, because I just can’t see those guys giving you anything in the playoffs.

There’s also the question of keeping both Butler and Harris next season, which is apparently want the Sixers want to do:

That’s going to be a TON of money for four guys.

Jimmy and Harris are free agents while Embiid hits the cap at $27.5 million next season and Ben Simmons at $8.1 million. Bolden, Smith, and Fultz are the only other players under contract, and Markelle’s $9.7m cap hit is gonna need to be moved in order to facilitate signing both Butler and Harris.

Considering that this is a “win now” type of trade, I think you have to move Markelle for whatever he’s worth, clear out that cap hit, and bring in somebody who can contribute immediately. You just don’t have the luxury to wait around for Markelle to get healthy and/or figure it out, so you need to advance the Fultz timeline, which is right now progressing at molasses speed.

My gut further tells me that the Sixers are better served by letting Butler walk and use his money to sign a pair of role players, but of course I haven’t even seen Harris in a Sixers uniform yet. Maybe he turns out to be a bad fit, but I highly, highly doubt it. Perhaps you offer Harris the max and see if Jimmy will take three years instead. If he doesn’t, he can go join LeBron in LA or whatever.

However you feel about Elton Brand, or this trade in general, the dude is really going after it, and I think the ultra-aggression we’ve seen from him this season is certainly appreciated after years of trying to build this thing back up. If he can address the bench by adding a wing piece in the buyout market or even flipping Fultz for a tangible asset, he’ll get the biggest gold star bestowed upon a Philly general manager since, well, Howie Roseman’s Super Bowl-winning season.