Philadelphia 76ers Continue Adding Assets In Kendall Marshall Trade

The Philadelphia 76ers continue to add future assets in trades, as they were part of a salary dump by the Utah Jazz.

The Philadelphia 76ers and Utah Jazz completed a trade Friday afternoon. It wasn’t a trade that will garner many headlines, as there weren’t any big-name players involved in the deal. But, the 76ers continued doing what they do best: stockpiling future assets at the cost of virtually nothing.

The 76ers will be trading point guard Kendall Marshall to the Jazz in exchange for Tibor Pleiss, two future second round picks and cash considerations. The deal was first reported by Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical.

The Jazz are planning to waive Marshall and remainder of his guaranteed contract, league sources tell @TheVertical. He'll become free agent.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) August 26, 2016

This is nothing more than a cost-cutting move for the Jazz. Pleiss was going to be owed a guaranteed $3 million from the Jazz for the 2016-17 season, so they decided to ship him to the 76ers for Marshall. Marshall has a non-guaranteed deal, and was released a mere hours after the deal.

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By waiving Marshall and trading away Pleiss, the Jazz have opened up $3 million more in cap space for this season. They can use that to give extensions to Derrick Favors or Rudy Gobert, both of whom are candidates for maximum extensions. They could also decide to hold onto that cap space and use it later on in the season to facilitate another trade.

Whatever the Jazz decide to do, it continues a bad trend for Marshall, who cannot stick with an organization. Since being the 13th overall pick in the 2012 NBA Draft, Marshall has been on four different teams; the Jazz would have been his fifth.

The 25-year-old was drafted by the Phoenix Suns, but has already suited up for the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers in addition to the 76ers. This was also the third time that Marshall was traded for and subsequently released; it also happened in 2013, when the Washington Wizards waived him and 2015 when the Suns waived him.

While no one wants to see a player struggle to find a place in the NBA, this was a no-brainer deal for the 76ers. They have shown that they are willing to help facilitate salary dump trades if it is worthwhile for them and this deal was.

By acquiring Pleiss, the 76ers add to their impressive stable of young big men. While Pleiss played only 82 minutes for the Jazz last season, he showed that he can play when in the NBA D-League. The 26-year-old German big man averaged 12.3 points and 10.4 rebounds per game in 28 appearances for the Idaho Stampede.

There is a chance that Pleiss is waived by the 76ers, as they have 20 players already on their roster, but they are in no rush to do so. There is no harm in bringing Pleiss to training camp and seeing how he fares; maybe he performs well and the 76ers can flip him for even more future assets.

Assets are what drove the 76ers to be a part of this deal. By taking on Pleiss’ guaranteed contract in exchange for the non-guaranteed one of Marshall, the Sixers received two more second round picks in the 2017 NBA Draft. The 76ers will receive the most favorable and least favorable of Utah’s selections, as they owned four second round picks in the 2017 draft.

Next: Philadelphia 76ers 2016 Offseason Grades

In addition to the picks, the 76ers will also be receiving some cash for their troubles. That seems like quite a haul just to add some salary to a payroll that is still way below the salary floor. Smart money is on the 76ers continuing to make deals as the season goes on to hit that floor, and you can be sure they will be adding future assets and cash in those deals as well.

Philadelphia 76ers Continue Adding Future Assets In Trade With Utah Jazz

By Kenneth Teape | Aug 27, 2016

The Philadelphia 76ers continue to add future assets in trades, as they were part of a salary dump by the Utah Jazz.