3 reasons the Philadelphia 76ers won’t make any NBA Trade Deadline moves

Substantial upgrade not possible

The Sixers have some movable players in terms of salary, but perhaps not in terms of what teams will be looking for in return for whatever they will be seeking

Zhaire Smith and Mike Scott are making $3.1 and $4.8 million, respectively, this season. In a perfect world, those seem like they could match up to salary needs, and both are attractive assets for teams. Firing up the trade machine will show you that you could trade those two for Davis Bertans, but that’s not something the Wizards are going to accept.

Scott is a veteran who can plug into plenty of five-man lineups. He’s decent on defense and is OK beyond the arc. He is one of the many players on the Sixers roster whose shots have simply not found the bottom of the net for one reason or another this year, converting on 34.1 percent of his 3.4 attempts compared to 41.2 percent on 4.4 attempts last year.

Smith, however, has been on the fringe of Brett Brown’s rotation (5.8 minutes per game this year) and while the idea of what he could be certainly is an interesting thing to ponder, it’s hard to sell a “might be” as the leading part of a trade and get substantial return.

Beyond those digestible salaries, Al Horford seems like a player Philly would be willing to trade. Horford offers defensive versatility, rebounding, and ability to stretch the floor on offense. These are skills a number of teams could use (ironically, his former team the Celtics might need those skills the most at the deadline this year).

While still a good player, Horford is set to make beyond $25 million this year and in the three seasons following, something many teams may be reluctant to take on as the 33-year-old big man is quite possibly past the best years of his career.

Josh Richardson is a possible player to be traded, but the Sixers could use his shooting and defensive versatility. Similar conundrums present themselves for Furkan Korkmaz, who should not be traded unless he is a contention point for a player that will move the needle considerably for Philly.

Any number of Trey Burke, Kyle O’Quinn, James Ennis, Raul Neto or Jonah Bolden could be included to meet salary needs but won’t be the players that opposing teams are calling about. They might be smaller cogs to a larger deal, but not the main one.

Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons, and Tobias Harris almost certainly won’t be traded.

And no, the Sixers are not going to be able to get D’Angelo Russell this season, even if that’s the caliber of player they want to add. Their ideal motivations going into the trade deadline simply don’t line up with what they have to offer in return.