UGGGHH!! I didn't realize Justin Anderson was even available! I would have loved to have him in Boston. A prototypical modern NBA wing who was taken in the 1st round during that loaded 2015 draft. 6'6 with a 7 foot wingpsan. An excellent defender. He was huge during the playoffs last year for Dallas. Just turned 23 a few months ago.. He's been buried on Dallas and not getting the minutes he deserves, but that guy is just a winning player who makes big plays that don't show up on the stat sheet. He reminds me of Marcus Smart, but with better shooting. You'd think Dallas would have learned their lesson about giving away promising young wings like that. The last time they did this, they added Jae Crowder as a "throw-in" in the Rondo deal... They regretted it then and they very well may end up regretting it here in a few years. Once again, Philly adds a kid with star potential. We'll see if he can reach his potential on that team.
That move just caps off an outstanding trade deadline for Philly that would likely make Sam Hinkie himself proud.
First and foremost, keeping Okafor instead of selling him off for pennies on the dollar. Recent news came out that Philly still values him as a Top 3 pick. And rightfully so. Okafor has legitimate star potential. Flaws in his game for sure, but he's a 21 year old with many years of development left in him and multiple years left on his rookie deal giving Philly plenty of time to experiment with him. Perhaps only Philly will be capable of matching the twin towers of the Pelicans. That should be interesting.
Next, that Ilyasova trade caps off an excellent string of transactions for Philly. It started when Hinkie drafted Jerami Grant with a 2nd round pick. Colangelo was able to trade Jerami Grant for a expiring contract Ilyasova, a 1st round pick and a 2nd round pick. He then successfully flipped Ilyasova for another 2nd round pick just months later. Impressive. So they basically turned Grant (a 2nd) into a 1st round pick and two second rounders... or if that 1st (Thunder's top 20 protected 2020 pick) doesn't convey, they'll end up getting 4 second round picks for Jerami Grant. Outstanding. Obviously, this trade also frees up minutes for budding phenom Dario Saric and possibly incoming superstar prospect Ben Simmons. Ilyasova had to go. Great move.
So then you have this impressive Justin Anderson acquisition which finishes off one of the great NBA heists - turning the injury prone Jrue Holiday into rookie of the year frontrunner Dario Saric + a 1st rounder + Justin Holiday + multiple 2nd round picks. This move, of course, put Philly in position to tank their way to Joel Embiid that season - a player who (if he remains healthy) is the ultimate 2-way modern big man superstar who should immediately start leading his team to 50+ wins every year and dominate this league for years to come.
Last, but certainly not least, is the major reason Philadelphia might be the greatest winner of this 2017 Trade deadline - and why fans in Philly are genuinely considering starting a GoFundMe to build a Sam Hinkie Statue - the ramifications of the Kings/Pelicans trade are unbelievable. Kings could very well bottom out over the final stretch of the season and fall into the bottom 5. The 76ers have swap rights with them - meaning they are doubling up their opportunities to land a Top 3 pick during the lotto. But more impressive than that, they have the Kings unprotected 2019 pick. WOW. Just... WOW. That's some pseudo Danny Ainge next-level Brooklyn stuff right there. The hilarious part of that deal is that they basically got that pick swap and unprotected 2019 pick for the luxury of taking Nik Stauskas off the hands of the Kings.
The great irony of that is that Stauskas is a couple months older than Buddy Hield and has actually outperformed him this year.
Sauce Castillo: 9 points, 2.8 rebounds, 2.2 assists with .405/.376/.811 shooting.
Black Jimmer: 8.6 points, 2.9 rebounds, 1.4 assists with .392/.369/.879 shooting.
LOL. Wow. Just... Wow.
Safe to say, Philly owned this deadline. Good for them. I look forward to seeing them in the Eastern Conference Finals in 5 years - and then hopefully for the next 10 years after that.
Clay, does that fill my long-awaited Sixerphile quota for the month? You're welcome.