With about two minutes left until the 3:00 p.m. deadline, many Sixers fans were content with their earlier trade with the Denver Nuggets. But then a shocker was dropped on the city of Philadelphia as they saw their reigning Rookie of Year point guard traded away.
According to ESPN’s Marc Stein in a ridiculous four-team trade that involved the Sixers. The Milwaukee Bucks sent point guard Brandon Knight to the Phoenix Suns, while the Sixers shipped Michael Carter-Williams to the Bucks and Milwaukee also received Suns’ rookie point guard Tyler Ennis and big man Miles Plumlee. Finally to conclude the trade, the Celtics received Suns’ point guard Isaiah Thomas, who they just signed this past offseason.
If you thought that the Sixers had got fleeced in this deal, you were wrong as they ended up with the Suns’ top five protected 2015 first-round pick via the Los Angeles Lakers according to Jeff Zillgitt of USA TODAY. So if you look at it from this angle, the Sixers basically traded MCW for a top five pick. That’s a nice deal by Hinkie but makes Sixers fans feel indifferent on what the plan is for the future.
MCW’s short career in Philadelphia was interesting to say the least as the organization really wasn’t satisfied with him being the team’s point guard of the future. It was pretty obviously on draft night last summer, when they drafted point guard Elfrid Payton but then traded him to the Orlando Magic for Dario Saric. Throughout last season and part of this season, Carter-Williams’ name has been brought up in trade rumors. Is he a solid point guard? Yes. But is he a game-changing point guard? No. He is not a franchise point guard as it looks like rookie big man Joel Embiid is actually the face of the franchise.
In his two years with the Sixers, MCW averaged 16.0 points, 6.7 assists, and 6.2 rebounds per game in 34.3 minutes per game. A thing that Sixers fans did not like about MCW’s game was his field goal percentage and turnovers as over his short career; he is shooting 39.6 percent from the field and averaging 3.8 turnovers per game.
Carter-Williams will be able to find his footing in Milwaukee as the Bucks have a young nucleus mixed with vets led by head coach Jason Kidd, who has them in the playoffs. According to a tweet from CSN Philly’s Dei Lynam, Kidd really wanted MCW:
Source: Jason Kidd had been pushing for MCW for awhile. MCW am told was surprised and disappointed. A lot of good people in Philly
— Dei Lynam (@dlynamCSN) February 19, 2015
It will be interesting to see what Carter-Williams does in Milwaukee and where Hinkie has this franchise going next.
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