Philly is an ideal situation for a GM. Tons of cap space, tons of prospects and picks. They set that team up beautifully.
I think you have to shop everyone. There's no real team there yet. Just assets. Clearly they need guards and less centers. The thing is, nobody here is really sure what the trade value is of some of these prospects. There's a wide range of opinions. So while I could say "trade Noel for smart" or "trade Okafor for 3", we really have no idea of either team is truly interested in doing that. For all we know, they could trade Okafor for jimmy butler or trade Noel for Paul George. We have no clue.
Here's what I do know. If I were in charge of Philly, I'd probably take none of the Celtic offers. I'd have little interest in trading one of the bigs for Marcus smart. Smart has potential, but he also is offensively incompetent so far and might cap out as a role player. No thank you. I'd also have very little interest in the 3rd pick. There's high bust potential with that pick. I'd much rather have a guarantee. Instead, I'd be looking at what kind of established talent can be acquired.
Chad ford has recently suggested Philly could trade Okafor and the future 2017 laker pick for #2. At least with that you'd be able to get both Ingram and Simmons. A better idea might be the one some Suns fans came up with. The Suns fans said they were willing to trade both Brandon knight and the #4 pick for Okafor. I think either knight or Bledsoe would be a nice option, because they have already proven to be quality point guards.
I'd look towards moving one of the bigs, like Noel, to the bucks for one of their small forwards. They have a log jam at SF of Giannis, Parker and Middleton. Any one of those guys would be a huge help in philly and are less risky than acquiring an unknown pick (#3) or sketchy prospect (Marcus smart). Could you trade Noel for Middleton or Parker ? Depends if the Bucks need an elite defensive big man prospect.
Actually, I'd consider trading Okafor straight up for d'Angelo Russell if landing a prospect was essential. Russell has already shown a ton of potential and a better prospect than smart or probably anyone available at 3. Lakers love Okafor and probably wouldn't mind having a do-over and just penciling in clarkson as PG.
What's the market for saric? Some Suns fans said they would trade knight straight up for him. No idea what his trade value is.
With a new GM in charge and a more balanced roster, could philly be a major player in free agency? No team has more cap space.
Who knows. I guess if we were just going off random guesstimating and reaches, we'd say they could have a team of Brandon Knight, 4th pick (hield/Murray), jabari Parker, Ben Simmons, Joel embiid and Dario Saric off the bench with something like 70 million in cap space to target some vets like horford, luol deng, pau gasol, etc. They also should feel free to make major offers to multiple restricted free agents like Harrison Barnes without concern of locking up cap space for a few days. They have so much of it.
If I were them, I definitely stay young and build around Simmons/Ingram, but the difference will be they can immediately make changes to build a balanced roster and actually pay for some stabilizing vets as opposed to previous seasons where the goal was to be as bad as possible, openly tank by adding redundant prospects, and outright refusing to sign veterans because it would ruin their chance at that top pick. Clearly this method has produced their best chance at a superstar, but now it's time to build a team and culture that can blossom.