So If The Sixers Are Open To Trading Markelle Fultz, Who Should Consider Calling?
Look I’m not going to waste time shitting on Markelle Fultz, that’s the low hanging fruit and honestly does nothing. But with reports out there that the Sixers are becoming more and more open to potentially moving Fultz, that provides a number of teams with a legit opportunity to buy low on a player that still has a ton of potential and hope that maybe a change of scenery will solve his issues. We’ve seen that with other NBA players, where for whatever reason a certain team or a certain system doesn’t work, then they leave and actually become serviceable. Now while it’s true that Fultz’s form and mental state are all sorts of fucked up, the facts are his numbers aren’t terrible.
2018-19: 8.2/3.7/3.1 with a 10.74 PER on 41% shooting
When you look at his Per 36s, those turn into 13/5.9/5.0 . As poor as he may have looked, by comparison that is a whole hell of a lot better than what Celtics fans have seen from Terry Rozier and Marcus Smart. It’s all relative. Sure he’s been disappointing given where he was drafted and all the hype surrounding him, but let’s not act like he is a completely useless player, that’s taking things a little too far in my opinion. Now the problem is obviously his trade value is dogshit, so I’m not sure what PHI is expecting as a return. I’m guessing you’re going to get salary filler and second round picks, MAYBE a low 1st round pick if they get lucky. So with that in mind, who even is out there as a potential trade partner? Looking across the NBA landscape, here’s who I could see being interested
Phoenix Suns
No brainer here in my opinion. Maybe the best thing for Fultz is to go to a young team where they have no expectations and he can just play his way out of this funk. Plus, me and like 5 other people actually make the effort to watch this team play on League Pass. Can you name the starting point guard in PHX right now? Exactly, a great under the radar option who desperately needs a point guard.
So what do they have to offer. Well, they need to get to around $8M so things are a little tough given the salaries PHX has, but maybe something like Troy Daniels (3.2)/Bender (4.6)/Melton (949K), and like a 2021 2nd round pick? They’ve already declared they are moving on from Bender, and Troy Daniels doesn’t play, so what’s the harm here?
Houston Rockets
Outside of CP3, what does the Rockets guard depth look like? You have Brandon Knight who is still hurt , you have Michael Carter-Williams who nobody should be forced to play, so are those really worse options than Fultz? The problem here is the Rockets use a system which sort of requires you to be able to shoot, but we’ve seen Mike D’Antoni work his magic before. If anyone is up to the challenge of shaping a PG, he’d be pretty high on the list.
Why not offer something like Maquese Chriss who doesn’t play and makes $9M with one of their 2020 or 2021 incoming 2nd round picks? PHI gets some big man depth which they sneaky need, and Fultz gets a fresh start with a coach that has a good history with PGs.
Cleveland Cavaliers
There are rumors that the Cavs are already sniffing around, and yes I know they have Collin Sexton, but after that, things don’t look all that good. George Hill is hurt, JR Smith is out the door, and they don’t really have any sort of guard depth. The problem for CLE is their players make too much money, but what about someone like Sam Dekker and some of their future 2nd round picks?
Sixers get someone to help their shooting when he’s healthy, and Fultz gets to join a team in a rebuild where he won’t be asked to be the man (that’s Sexton’s job) and can hold down that second unit. Not a terrible idea in my opinion.
Orlando Magic
You know who else needs a point guard? The Magic. It won’t be easy as they don’t exactly have the contracts to match outside of Jonathan Simmons and his 6.6M, but he’s a rotation player which I can’t see the Magic parting with. In an ideal world they’d find a way to move Mozgov, but he makes $16M and PHI doesn’t have an additional $8M to add to the pot. The Magic do have the type of 2nd round picks that they could potentially include if they were able to find a third team to make this happen, and I think Orlando is another one of those teams that nobody even really pays attention to and has a good coach in Steve Clifford
San Antonio Spurs
The only true way to make this work is if they trade back Belinelli to PHI, but considering he plays 22 minutes a night I doubt that happens. The guard need is there though for SA, with Dejounte Murray going down, Lonnie Walker IV going down, and who knows how much you can rely on Derrick White/Bryn Forbes. I also just think Fultz may be so lost you have to get him to the best coach in the game. No more babying bullshit when it comes to Pop. If anyone can figure out how to fix Fultz, it’s him.
I think what Elton Brand is going to learn is that there is not going to be a huge market for Fultz at this point in time. Considering they have to decide to pick up his team option at the end of next season, and is owed $9.7M in the 2019-20 season, you’re asking a lot from a potential trade parter to take on this sort of cost for a guy who at the moment is a mess. Would we really see things get to a point where they somehow waive Fultz after this season? That’s some Anthony Bennet level shit, so I would find that unlikely. Much more likely they eat one more year of Fultz and then decline his 12M option for 2020-21. Either way if you’re a team out there that has the cap space and the contracts to snag him and don’t mind taking the risk, it’s certainly available for you.
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Where do you want to see Fultz go if PHI really is serious about moving him? I say PHX. Why be forced to make a big RFA for someone like Rozier when you can essentially get the same production for cheaper in Fultz.