Philadelphia 76ers: Is Furkan Aldemir Why Brandon Davies Was Traded?
By Cody Daniel
As you may know by now, the latest satisfaction for Philadelphia 76ers general manger Sam Hinkie’s appetite to constantly make tweaks and adjustments to his roster came by way of a mid-game trade that sent Brandon Davies to the Brooklyn Nets in exchange for Andrei Kirilenko, Jorge Gutierrez, the Nets’ 2020 second round pick and the rights to swap second round picks in 2018.
The trade doesn’t really make much sense in the now for the Sixers, who are expected to waive Kirilenko, while Gutierrez will likely follow. Philly traded away one of its few big bodies is the paint with Davies standing 6’10”, 240 pounds, which leaves the only logical reasoning behind the trade being the arrival of Furkan Aldemir.
Aldemir is a bit smaller than Davies at 6’9”, 230 pounds, and he’s unquestionably less skilled as on offensive asset. This isn’t to suggest that Davies was a valuable offensive spark on a consistent basis, but he did have a decent, yet limited repertoire that he put on display from time to time, and just about everything he was able to do offensively will be out of reach for Aldemir, once he finally suits up in Philly, of course.
If the reason for the Davies trade was, in fact to make room for Aldemir in Philly and give him the immediate opportunity as a backup to Nerlens Noel, the best possible explanation is Hinkie is starting to test the waters with some of the lesser assets he’s collected.
One thing that’s common in the early stages of rebuilds is finding pieces that seem like they could become a fit in the long haul and scraping the ones that have no real impact in either the short or long term. This is likely why Davies was traded. He’s averaged only 6.3 points and 3.7 boards this season, which aren’t exactly the kind of numbers that force a GM to retain you, although, Davies had only one year of NBA experience underneath his belt and could have bloomed into a solid backup post presence sometime down the road.
But Davies is now the past and Aldemir will soon be filling his shoes. This isn’t necessarily something to rave about with his very limited offensive ability, but he is a much better rebounder than Davies and runs exceptionally well in transition, which often led to buckets at the rim overseas. Of course, the NBA game is an entirely different beast and the mediocre impact Aldemir had for Galatasaray at 7.8 points and 6.8 rebounds in 21 minutes per game will likely be even less noticeable for the Sixers.
There’s no real answer as to when Aldemir will make his debut into the NBA, but with Davies now gone, there’s no question a very size-deprived Sixers’ squad will be glad when he arrives. Now all Hinkie can hope for is that his lengthy list of second round snags will start to pay off with his first overseas player coming to town.