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2019-2020 76ers Thread



The Westbrook - Paul trade does impact the Sixers, as they have a future 1st round draft pick from the Thunder

 
There is also a strong chance Paul is traded to Miami. The Thunder are in full blown rebuild mode.

The Thunder have no incentive to help Miami. They own Miami's unprotected first round pick in 2021 (??). Plus another of Miami's first round picks (2023??). Does giving them Chris Paul make Miami worse in two years or better? Hard to say. CP is getting up there in age. And maybe he and Butler don't get along. Who knows.

The Thunder are going all in on the process. Where is Sam Hinkie?
 
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The Thunder have no incentive to help Miami. They own Miami's unprotected first round pick in 2021 (??). Plus another of Miami's first round picks (2023??). Does giving them Chris Paul make Miami worse in two years or better? Hard to say. CP is getting up there in age. And maybe he and Butler don't get along. Who knows.

The Thunder are going all in on the process. Where is Sam Hinkie?

Its not ideal for the Thunder, but the Heat are one of only a few who could take on Paul's contract. Keeping Paul for a rebuild makes no sense for the Thunder, and Miami would like to have another star to pair up with Butler. Paul is also said to want to go to Miami.
 
Its not ideal for the Thunder, but the Heat are one of only a few who could take on Paul's contract. Keeping Paul for a rebuild makes no sense for the Thunder, and Miami would like to have another star to pair up with Butler. Paul is also said to want to go to Miami.

I understand all of that. I'm just saying it doesn't work to OKC's advantage. On top of what I mentioned, what assets does the Thunder even get from Miami? They have to take back overpaid players to make the salaries work. But what actual assets do the get? Miami doesn't have any first rounders to trade until at least 2025.
 


“What you notice is his ability defensively to keep multiple types of players in front of him. He was strong enough to play kind of dead behind Joel (Embiid) and move his feet and show his hands and always really forcing Joel to make a difficult shot,” the coach said, recounting what he saw from the other side in the Celtics-Sixers duels. “It wasn’t like Joel was going to manhandle Al at all. You know, there’s a strength to his base. There’s an intellect of how prepares for a specific assignment, and I respected very much how he defended Joel. Then you get into his ability to switch, his ability to do different things, whether it was with Ben (Simmons), you know, at times switching out on some of our wing players. I loved his intellect and I loved his toughness and I loved his versatility defensively.

“And then you go to the other side of the ball, and it’s almost the same answer that I’ll give, talking about just offensively what he can do. He’s such a modern day player, in that he can post, he can pick and pop, he can catch and go if somebody is really worried about him picking and popping and making 3’s. You know, there’s just a completeness to his game on both sides of the ball that allows him to have the success and impact that he has had on the teams that he’s played with.”
 
I understand all of that. I'm just saying it doesn't work to OKC's advantage. On top of what I mentioned, what assets does the Thunder even get from Miami? They have to take back overpaid players to make the salaries work. But what actual assets do the get? Miami doesn't have any first rounders to trade until at least 2025.
They get to offload the long Paul contract, and can receive expiring deals in return (ie dragic) or gifted youngsters like adebayo or herro. But the biggest gift is offloading the long and expensive Paul contract. I’d almost expect the thunder to give up picks for someone else to take that deal off their books.
 
I could see Smith earning the starting spot at the 2

Love Smith's upside, but he probably has less than 200 nba minutes or so, without checking. I'd be surprised if he started this year, wouldn't be surprised (with a good season) about next year.
 
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