Philadelphia 76ers: What If Sixers Traded For Anthony Bennett?

ESPN’s Brian Windhorst is reporting that there is a “handshake agreement” between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Minnesota Timberwolves that Kevin Love would be exchanged for the last two No. 1 overall picks, Anthony Bennett and Andrew Wiggins. The deal can’t become official until Aug. 23 — a full 30 days after Wiggins signed his contract with the Cavs.

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Versions of this trade have been widely proposed since the minute

released his famous first-person essay to the world, and the dissections won’t stop for weeks, especially with conceivably every variable still subject to change before Aug. 23.

Windhorst also reported a secondary trade from this main trade that would involve the Philadelphia 76ers: Anthony Bennett would be sent from the Timberwolves to Philadelphia, in exchange for Thaddeus Young. This is far from a concrete certainty. It’s a trade that is conditional on another trade that is three weeks away from potentially being completed. Everything must be qualified here with big, giant “if”s.

But still, if the Sixers really do have a handshake agreement with the Wolves — provided that the Wolves really do have a handshake agreement with the Cavs — this is a really intriguing move that provides some insight into how general manager Sam Hinkie views his team.

DraftExpress writer and Sixers blogger Derek Bodner has posted a very thorough look at the potential trade from the Sixers’ perspective, including looking at how Bennett’s statistics during his one year at college at UNLV were perhaps artificially inflated by a weak out-of-conference schedule. More importantly, of course, there is Bennett’s unmitigated disaster of a rookie year with the Cavs. Bodner writes:

"His conditioning wasn’t helped by a shoulder injury he had suffered over the summer, which left him behind on a lot of his training. Nor was it helped by asthma and sleep apnea, conditions which were revealed last fall. But that’s no excuse to show up like he did last season, where he looked like a pale imitation of his former self athletically.Perhaps more concerning than his conditioning (which itself is a huge concern) was his effort level. He simply looked disinterested, on both ends of the court, most of the times that I saw him. Maybe that was the Cavaliers situation, maybe that was his own situation, but combined with his disinterest on the defensive end at UNLV, there’s some concern there."

If the Wolves and Sixers really are to straight-up swap Young for Bennett, it would in part serve as proof that Bennett is one of the hardest-to-evaluate assets across the NBA.

From Minnesota’s perspective, trading away Love for high draft picks is to sacrifice present performance for future value — they wouldn’t be all-out rebuilding, per say, but they could not realistically expect to reach the Western Conference playoffs in 2014-15 by trading away a Team USA player for a rookie. If the focus, then, is on 2015-16 and beyond, then why trade away Bennett in exchange for Young, who will be a free agent after 2015-16, or even after 2014-15 if he decides to exercise the early termination option on his contract?

If the Wolves believe that Bennett is salvageable as a meaningful NBA contributor, they would have no reason to trade away a low-cost player for an expensive short-term asset. Perhaps, then, the Wolves don’t believe that Bennett is worth the trouble to get back on track.

And if the Wolves think that Bennett isn’t a cause worth pursuing — and, clearly, the Cavs don’t think too highly of him either — then why would the Sixers bother? The answer that makes the most sense, as far as I’m concerned: the Sixers believe that, with their thoughtful coaching staff, led by the development-focused Brett Brown, they are capable of fashioning treasure where other teams only see trash. If this trade really does go through, consider it a vote of confidence from Hinkie, to Brown and his staff.