Like many, I have notifications from Woj and Shams on during the busy transactional portions of the NBA calendar. It’s the reason I maintain any Twitter presence. So, of course, my jaw dropped late Tuesday night when my screen showed that Mikal Bridges would be a Knick for five first-round picks.
Immediately, the Knicks have become the challenger to the Celtics in the East. That fact became stronger on Wednesday with the news that OG Anunoby will return on a five-year contract. Sure, they might be thin at center, but they have switchable guys across the perimeter. The only players in their hypothetical rotation that are’t legitimate two-way players are Jalen Brunson, who is nearly unstoppable on offense, and Julius Randle, who will be a fascinating player to watch this off-season as a potential trade chip.
The biggest issue the Knicks faced this most recent postseason was secondary scoring. Bridges can be that.
There is a sense of frustration from Sixer fans on two accounts. How did the Knicks get this good so quickly and why isn’t Daryl Morey making moves?
New York has long been an incompetent franchise, but actually, shortly after their surprise playoff berth in 2021, the Knicks began making savvy moves. They have strongly benefited from other team’s missteps. Brunson, of course, and then Donte DiVincenzo (Milwaukee traded him for Serge Ibaka and then Sacramento let him walk to Golden State. Golden State couldn’t afford him due to tax concerns, so the Knicks jumped at the opportunity). Their patience (look back to their 2022 draft night trades) and contract decisions opened the door for so many of these opportunities. It’s been impressive to watch, for sure, but the Sixers have been in a totally different situation–hamstrung while digging themselves out of previous holes.
Last year during the draft I went to see Asteroid City because Philadelphia did not have any picks. Embarrassingly a leaked picture of their draft board showed possible second round picks they could buy. They never actually bought a draft pick. This year many speculated they’d trade their first-round pick for a win-now player. Similar to what they did two years ago for De’Anthony Melton. I was in the camp that maybe they’d use it to trade as part of a larger package for a guy like Brandon Ingram, especially since talks about signing Paul George as a free agent died down seemingly out of nowhere last week. The Sixers couldn’t move their first this year until they were on the clock due to the Stepien rule.
On Wednesday, the Sixers made their first pick since Charles Bassey in 2021.
I won’t pretend to be an expert on Jared McCain. I know he’s popular on TikTok. I’m sure the jokes will fly that he should spend more time working on his game than making videos will surface during any poor performance. And I know he can really shoot the ball. He’s undersized, which is a worry since in any playoff game Tyrese Maxey will play 40+ minutes, so how will that work?
As this title suggests, McCain and Adem Bona are just the first of many, many off-season moves. It’s hard to truly judge these picks, specifically McCain, as we don’t know what else Morey has planned, possibly beginning on Sunday at 6 p.m. with free agency. Bona seems like a worthy dice roll in the second round. I mean check out these highlights!
Last year the Sixers added Ricky Council IV and Terquavion Smith as undrafted free agents immediately following the draft as two-way players. Council played well enough in spot minutes to earn a contract by the end of the season, which demonstrates the legitimate value of two-way contract players. This year they signed Justin Edwards, a former five star recruit from Philly who played his lone collegiate season at Kentucky. In addition to Edwards, the Sixers reportedly signed David Jones, who played at Memphis, to a two-way deal and then Max Fiedler to an Exhibit 10 contract, which means a non guaranteed training camp invite. It’ll be fun to watch these players in summer league during the month of July. The odds that any of the undrafted guys will contribute is obviously far-fetched this season, but with the new CBA teams will rely upon second-round picks and undrafted guys more frequently than before. Cheaper players to round out benches might be the future.
There was healthy speculation that the Sixers might kick-off their off-season with pomp and circumstance on draft night with a trade. Even though that didn’t come to fruition, it was a pretty solid two days of injecting sorely needed youth.
But now the real fun begins.
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