Philadelphia 76ers: Ranking 5 potential offseason trades

After an early playoff exit, the Philadelphia 76ers need to make drastic improvements to their roster this offseason to compete for a title in 2021

After a season mired in mediocrity, there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that changes were on the way for the Philadelphia 76ers.

Brett Brown was fired immediately after the Sixers were swept in four games by the Boston Celtics in the first round of the playoffs.

General manager Elton Brand issued a statement after the decision to part ways with Brown:

"“I have a tremendous level of respect for Brett both personally and professionally. Unfortunately, we fell well short of our goals this year, and I believe it is best to go in a new direction. This will be an important offseason for us as we look to get back on track towards our goal of competing for an NBA championship.”"

Important offseason indeed, and that new direction he mentioned led to hiring former LA Clippers coach, Doc Rivers. The job doesn’t stop there, though.

Now that the 76ers have a new head coach, it’s time for Brand to right his wrongs and fix this poorly constructed roster.

In his first year as general manager, Brand made a lot of noise, but not always in a good way.

The 76ers started the 2018-2019 season 9-6 before striking a deal with the Minnesota Timberwolves for Jimmy Butler. The trade sparked a 25-14 run for the Sixers before trading Tobias Harris close to the trade deadline. After the Harris trade, the Sixers closed out the season, winning 17 of their final 28 games.

In the Butler trade, we saw Brand part ways with two multi-positional floor spacers that were an integral part of the team in Dario Saric and Robert Covington (both on team-friendly deals), a once-reliable Jerryd Bayless, and a 2020 second-round pick.

While trading for Harris, the Sixers also acquired Boban Marjanovic and Mike Scott. Both played sparingly, and the former is no longer with the organization. Brand unloaded even more assets to acquire Harris than he did Butler. To fortify the starting lineup, the team parted ways Wilson Chandler, Landry Shamet, Mike Muscala, and FOUR draft picks.

Elton Brand essentially traded away whatever cheap contracts with value and five draft picks for Jimmy Butler and Tobias Harris.

Sure, Butler was a necessary upgrade, but he hurt the team’s spacing with 80.0 percent of his field-goal attempts coming from inside the arc while shooting just 33.8 percent from three during his time in Philadelphia.

After being just a few bounces away from their first Eastern Conference Championship since 2001, everyone thought highly of the moves Brand made and were excited about this Sixers team’s future. Then the summer of 2019 happened.

Tobias Harris became the highest-paid player on the team despite being far from the best player on the roster, Butler left for Miami via sign-and-trade, J.J. Redick fled to New Orleans after Brand never offered a new contract, and Al Horford was signed to a massive deal for some odd reason.

One year later, Butler made his first finals appearance with the Miami Heat, and all the Sixers have to show for those trades are the quickest playoff exit for the franchise since the start of the decade, and Josh Richardson.

Elton Brand has his work cut out for him. With a projected $132.83 million already committed to the current projected starting lineup for the 2021 season, the only course of action is to diligently work the trade market.

The following are potential trade avenues Brand can explore this offseason, to improve the roster and compete for a title in 2021 and beyond.