Plenty Of Positives For 76ers Despite Quiet Trade Deadline

There were plenty of positives for the Philadelphia 76ers that transpired at the relatively quiet 2016 NBA Trade Deadline.

Philadelphia 76ers general manager Sam Hinkie thrived in controlled chaos at the 2014 and 2015 NBA Trade Deadlines. He swiftly converted deals that shifted the vision of where he felt his team was heading and needed to be. This time around, there weren’t the aftershocks of a three-team blockbuster or dealing of an important player to a contender for assets.

When Hinkie let the board play out and when he wasn’t impressed by incoming offers or the available talent on the market, he folded. With his trade chips still intact, no hasty moves were made that could have jeopardized the foundation of his core. Plus, Philadelphia can see how their Nerlens Noel–Jahlil Okafor pairing plays out for the rest of the season.

The 76ers made only one move Thursday, a three-team deal that originally included the Houston Rockets and Detroit Pistons, but it was a trade that’s become a common theme in regards to roster moves initiated by the savvy GM.

Joel Anthony is going to resemble many of the Sixers’ salary dump moves over the past two years. He’ll either be the end-of-the-bench veteran that earns little to no playing time or a waive candidate later in the season to make room for a more useful and appealing addition. The recently waived Jakarr Sampson could be that lucky player rejoining an NBA organization.

While they weren’t also involved in the Anderson Varejao salary dump, if you’re Philadelphia you have to like how the trade deadline concluded without landscape-changing moves shifting the league’s power.

Division foe Boston, who general manager Danny Ainge has developed into a successful organization since implementing their rebuilding process in the summer of 2013, didn’t take a quantum leap Thursday by parlaying their cache of draft picks into a star center.

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Reportedly linked to both Al Horford and Dwight Howard, it appeared that Boston was making a serious bid for one of the top spots in the Eastern Conference. The second seed in the East is definitely a reachable landing area for the Celtics, who are one game up on the fourth-seeded Miami Heat.

Maybe Atlanta felt they could make a determined push at the end of the season and avoid possibly playing Cleveland in the second round of the playoffs. With rumors of the Hawks trying to gauge interest for both Jeff Teague and Dennis Schroder, it looked as if Atlanta was raising the white flag for its 2016 postseason aspirations.

With no suitor for either point guard and Boston unable to formulate a successful deal for Horford, neither team significantly increased or decreased their positioning in the Eastern Conference.

The only team that exhibited the possibility of rebuilding was surprisingly the Memphis Grizzlies, who’ve made the second round of the Western Conference the previous four seasons. Dealing two starters in Courtney Lee and Jeff Green, Memphis stockpiled five draft picks for two expiring contracts. Sounds like a “Hinkie,” but the Sixers are lucky there weren’t multiple significant teardown projects Thursday.

The deadline, in addition, provided a glimpse of Hinkie’s teacher-mentor rapport with Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey. For the second straight trade deadline, the Sixers and Rockets completed a deal, albeit non-impactful. Last year, Morey allowed Philadelphia to cut bait with then-rookie K.J. McDaniels for Isaiah Canaan and a second-round pick. This year, Hinkie took on Anthony’s contract in order to reach the salary floor and give Houston some financial flexibility in the offseason.

This is a pattern worth monitoring in the future, as Philadelphia begins to build with a foundation of first round talent. Houston also could lose Dwight Howard in the offseason, dropping further away from the tier of heavyweights they occupied last year in the Western Conference.

For the Sixers, there has to be a time when they make a pitch to teams in the West realizing that Golden State is evolving into a dynasty. Houston is on the decline and Memphis is becoming a translucent organization that’s thinking about the future. These notions have to be running rampant in Hinkie’s expansive synapses.

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Thursday showed that the Western Conference could be a four-horse race for many years to come, with both Oklahoma City (Randy Foye) and Los Angeles (Jeff Green) making moves and not backing down to Golden State’s power. While the East’s middling teams (Washington, Charlotte, Detroit) brought in upgrades in an attempt to make noise in the playoffs, it’s evident that various playoff teams in the West knew what the necessary route was heading into the playoffs.

The Warriors might have gotten blitzed last night by the vastly underrated and emerging Trail Blazers, but they’ve matched the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls’ record for the best mark through 53 games (48-5).

Philadelphia was initially biding time as LeBron James‘ three straight (at the time) NBA Finals appearances was enough fuel to jumpstart the rebuilding process. Now, there’s another alpha contender in the NBA — one that’s put a scare in the entire league.

The Sixers obviously weren’t making any feverous attempt at trying to convert their young players and picks into proven talent in order to compete next season. If Golden State continues its stamp on the league for multiple seasons, more teams than just Houston and Memphis could transform into sellers and bide out the Warriors’ onslaught like the Sixers are doing.

More hoops habit: 2016 NBA Trade Deadline: Grades For All 30 Teams

Boston didn’t get their intended bigs and unlikely teams unloaded productive players for assets — two plusses for Philadelphia and other rebuilding teams in the Eastern Conference.