The Philadelphia 76ers are approaching the trade deadline fast, with less than two weeks left for the Sixers to better their team. While, rightfully so, most Sixers’ trade buzz this season will revolve around All-Star point guard Ben Simmons and Tobias Harris’ massive contract. These two players are not the only way for the Sixers to make improvements to their team. The 76ers carry other contracts and assets with them to this trade deadline, such as young projects like Jaden Springer, Isaiah Joe, and Paul Reed, while also carrying a bigger contract for salary matching purposes in Danny Green and his 10 million dollar contract.
Looking around the league, taking Danny Green’s 10 million dollar contract, the Sixers would be able to trade Green’s contract for any player’s contract worth up to 125% or down to 75% of his contract. That means when looking to trade Danny Green, the salaries that we take in need to total somewhere from 7.5 million to 12.5 million dollars. There are 60 players in this price range in the league right now. Obviously, there are some players that won’t be able to be targeted (Zion Williamson, Cade Cunningham Ja Morant), or others that wouldn’t be great positional or team fits (Josh Richardson, Marvin Bagley, Jakob Poeltl), and others that would represent a downgrade in talent for the Sixers (Tomas Satoransky, DeAndre Jordan). Taking this list and trimming it down gives Daryl Morey and the Sixers a shortlist of possible Danny Green trade partners. With this list, there are three interesting players that may be available come the February 10th trade deadline.
Tyus Jones
Tyus Jones, over his seven-year career in the NBA, has been an interesting player, never quite becoming elite at any one thing, but always being good at many different things. His playmaking has been solid his entire career, with career averages of 3.6 per game and per 36 averages of 7.2 assists per game. Even more important, though, is the fact that Tyus Jones has never once averaged more than 0.9 turnovers per game in a season. His ability to not turn the ball over while still consistently setting up teammates to succeed is one of the main reasons he has had continued success as a true point guard in this league.
On top of his playmaking ability, the 25-year-old Duke product is shooting the ball with excellent efficiency this season. He is currently averaging a career-high in points with 8.2 per game; he is shooting 47.1% from the field and an excellent 38.6% from deep, all of which are career highs. His defense is also still at its peak as he is currently averaging 0.9 steals per game in only 21.1 minutes per game.
Terrence Ross
Terrence Ross is trapped on the worst team in the Eastern Conference. He is stuck on a team devoid of talent as an aging bucket getter. With Vucevic succeeding in Chicago, Evan Fournier getting a big contract from the New York Knicks, and Aaron Gordon in Denver catching lobs from Jokic, Ross is really the final pillar from the Magic’s former team, and it’s about time that he gets rescued as well.
The Philadelphia 76ers could desperately use someone of Ross’s abilities. Ross is a solid volume scorer with a decent level of efficiency from everywhere on the floor, as evidenced by his career shooting splits of 41.8/36.4/87.3. His ability as a volume scorer would be greatly appreciated on this Sixers team devoid of consistent scoring from anyone not named Embiid. Ross would also probably see an uptick in efficiency as well if he joined the Sixers since he wouldn’t be a top priority for teams to slow down with Embiid dominating everyone down low.
Dillon Brooks
A fellow member of the Memphis Grizzlies, Dillon Brooks, would be a dream addition to this team. He plays elite defense, as shown by his 1.3 steals per game. He scores like a madman, dropping in a career-high 18.4 points per game on semi-efficient shooting. Currently, Brooks is shooting 42.6% from the field, 32.7% from deep, and 88.9% from the line. He is doing all of this while playing only 28.0 minutes per game.
Dillon Brooks has been playing fantastic all year for the Grizzlies, yet with the emergence of Desmond Bane as an elite offensive power and their MVP level offense from superstar point guard Ja Morant, Dillon Brooks may be dispensable as a way for the Grizzlies to gain some potential draft picks or project players to develop.
Conclusion
The Sixers are definitely going to be buyers at the NBA trade deadline. We know that the Sixers would like to find the perfect trade for Ben Simmons, and it’s clear that the Sixers would like to move Tobias Harris as well. Yet while everyone is focused so deeply on those two players, it’s very possible that Philadelphia looks to move someone like Danny Green and assets for win-now improvements.
