Philadelphia 76ers Shouldn’t Want Andrei Kirilenko On Board
By Cody Daniel
By now, you may be familiar with one of the Philadelphia 76ers most recent shuffling of assets, in which Sam Hinkie exchanged second-year power forward Brandon Davies for the Nets’ Andrei Kirilenko and a 2020 second-round draft pick.
With the Sixers recently building a reputation for making trades before soon waiving their latest additions, the same could have been expected for Kirilenko after he’s failed to see much action on the court over the past two seasons due to injuries, conditioning struggles and some family medical issues.
But as reported by Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Hinkie and the Sixers actually want Kirilenko to report to Philadelphia and prepare to start playing.
"“The Philadelphia 76ers are requesting forward Andrei Kirilenko report to the team and prepare to start playing in games, league sources told Yahoo Sports.”"
But just as you could expect from the 13-year veteran forward, Kirilenko isn’t in too much of a rush to join the tanking ways of the 4-23 Sixers, as Wojnarowski reported.
"“For now, Kirilenko and his representatives are resisting the Sixers’ overtures, preferring the organization waive Kirilenko and let him become a free agent, sources said.”"
This unwillingness to join a team that’s at the farthest point from competitive basketball is completely understandable, considering Kirilenko is in the final stretch of his career and going out on bottom isn’t usually desirable.
But in terms of the Sixers and their wishes for Kirilenko to report to Philly and get prepared to play could bring some negative side effects that should deter Hinkie from putting him in a Sixers’ jersey.
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At this point, it’s all about stacking assets in Philly and if the Sixers could somehow get Kirilenko to get back into basketball shape and play at a moderately worthwhile level, the possibility of shipping Kirilenko off to a contending team in need of a veteran wing presence might be willing to deal some of the coveted second-round draft picks Hinkie seeks.
But there’s several things that have to happen in order for that to ever become a realistic possibility.
If this were to happen before the NBA’s February trade deadline, Kirilenko would have to somehow get back into basketball shape, willingly join the Sixers on the court, and finally and most unlikely, Kirilenko would actually have to have an impact on the court that makes contending teams feel that they his services enough to ship off some draft picks for him.
Factor in that this would all need to take place in less than two months and it seems even more impossible.
But assuming that Kirilenko will eventually make his way to Philly to satisfy Hinkie’s demands, some of the negative side effects of practically forcing AK-47 to play could ultimately hurt a young team struggling to find its identity.
As you could come to expect, with such a young team full of guys playing for their future in the NBA on a nightly basis and losing nearly every time they see the court, there’s a certain difficulty in maintaining the locker room and keeping the guys focused on the present, as well as the long-term goal.
By bringing in a guy who simply wants nothing to do with the organization, and just seeks to be waived and move on, any sort of negative attitude and reluctance to provide much effort from Kirilenko could cause some issues in a locker room where many young guys can easily be discouraged and distracted by the rebuild in Philly.
Just as we know Kirilenko doesn’t want to be in Philly, the Sixers players likely know as well, and that’s simply not something you want to bring onto a young roster clinging for any signs of optimism they can get their hands on.
And then you have the almost non-existent impact Kirilenko would have on the court if he suited up in Philly. He’s still some work away from being back in basketball shape, but even if he does manage to see the court for the Sixers, it’s unlikely that he would have much of a statistical impact.
In seven games for Brooklyn this season, Kirilenko played only 5.1 minutes and averaged 0.4 points per game. Last season, he averaged 19 minutes in 45 games, while contributing only five points per game.
These numbers clearly don’t indicate and major demand for Kirilenko to take time away from guys like K.J. McDaniels, Robert Covington and Hollis Thompson.
McDaniels, Covington and Thompson are all young prospects fighting for an extended stay in the NBA, and throwing some of their minutes to Kirilenko could gradually effect some of their growth and limit extra opportunities to show how much of an impact they could have.
When you consider this, along with the virtual understanding that Kirilenko will walk away in free agency if he’s not traded prior, it only makes sense to just adhere to Kirilenko’s request and waive him.
It’s a stretch to hope that the Sixers could aquire anything of real value in exchange for a diminishing Kirilenko, and with some possible negative consequences by keeping him around, Hinkie shouldn’t want Kirilenko to ever set foot in the Wells Fargo Center as a Sixer.