Sixers General Manager Sam Hinkie made two deadline deals last week and sent both Michael Carter-Williams and KJ McDaniels out of town. There has been one game since the deals and Sixers Head Coach Brett Brown said ‘he felt naked’ without these two guys.
I was never really sold on the idea of Carter-Williams (MCW) being the long term answer at PG and I guess we now see that Hinkie and Brown were not sold either. Even though Hinkie was on the Mike Missanelli show on 97.5 Friday afternoon sating that MCW does have a lot of the qualities that he is looking for in a PG. McDaniels was only here on a one year deal so at least the Sixers got something for him, as opposed to him walking in the summer and the Sixers get nothing.
As an organization the Sixers have been building for the future for the last two seasons, it has been believed that MCW was the cornerstone at PG and he would have Nerlens Noel and Joel Embiid to help him out. Embiid will not even hit the floor until next season. Up until last Thursday it looked like next season was when the Sixers would start to compete again. It no longer looks that way.
In return for MCW the Sixers received a first round pick from the Lakers that is top 5 protected this season, so the chances of the Sixers getting this pick for this draft is very unlikely. You will have to think the Lakers will improve next season and that pick (2016 draft) probably will not be in the top 10 and maybe not even the top 15.
The Sixers now have a hole at the point guard position that they will likely fill in the draft. So you are looking at another year or two project at the point guard position.
For the last couple of weeks before the All-Star break many people around town talked about how exciting this team was to watch and felt they were making progress and competing. How many people are going to be saying that a month from now or even a month into next season?
I am on board with this tanking idea, but after these trades it makes me wonder how much longer the Sixers will be tanking. When you look at the Eastern Conference there is really no dominant team so why are we tanking when in theory the East is there for the taking.
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