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Philadelphia 76ers: It’s time to go all in on D’Angelo Russell

By Matty Breisch

(Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
(Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images) /
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As the Brooklyn Nets set their sights on Jimmy Butler and Kyrie Irving, the Philadelphia 76ers should go all in on stealing D’Angelo Russell.

By trading Allen Crabbe and a pair of first-round picks to the Atlanta Hawks for forward Taurean Prince and a second round pick, the Brooklyn Nets not only just freed up enough money for a max contract slot, but also the potential to have a second one if they renounce the rights to impending restricted free agent D’Angelo Russell.

While this could come as bad news to fans in the 215, as Jimmy Butler will presumably be one of Brooklyn’s main free agent targets alongside probable suitor Kyrie Irving, this could actually play out in the Philadelphia 76ers‘ favor and make the team better in the long run.

Yeah, seriously.

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On the surface, losing Butler to the Nets in addition to the upgrade of Irving will certainly make Philly worse and Brooklyn better – a scary thought when you consider just how close the Nets came to unseating Philly in the first round of the playoffs – but by locking in a pair of not exactly friendly not exactly dead-eyed shooters into long-term contracts frees up Russell to become available to the market in a way that he wouldn’t have been under previous restrictions.

Now Irving is undoubtedly a better player than Russell in almost every statistical category, but that doesn’t mean Russell is a bad player per se; he’s actually a much better fit in Philly.

As I have mused so often before, D’Angelo Russell has become the player Bryan Colangelo wished Markelle Fultz would become when he traded up in the first round to procure the Washington product. Measuring in at a very respectable 6-foot-5, 198 pounds, Russell is a flexible combo guard who’s developed into a pretty solid passer, and could be comfortable in this game playing either off or on the ball.

Need proof? Look no further than his time at Montverde Academy in Florida, where he and Ben Simmons won a pair of high school national championships as the team’s top two options. Together, Russell and Simmons went 45-2 and vaulted each other into the conversation to be the top two draft picks in the 2015 and 2016 NBA Drafts

But wait, it gets better.

Not only were Russell and Simmons teammates in high school, but for a time, Russell and Joel Embiid were teammates as well, before the later transferred to Rock Academy. Though they never shared the court in an actual game, the duo clearly became friends over their time together, as highlighted by their interactions whenever the teams played each other throughout the last few regular seasons.

So in signing Russell, the Sixers would not only be getting that combo guard they’ve always wanted, but one with a proven historical track record playing alongside the team’s two stars. In the crapshoot that is free agency, that’s as close to a sure thing as a team could hope for.

Furthermore, on the court, Russell does just about everything a Brett Brown-coached team could want. Last season, Russell finished at the season with his best statistical numbers as a pro, leading the charge for the Nets on their first postseason run since the Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett-era.

Like Butler, Russell can shoot from pretty much anywhere on the court and has the ability to make plays for himself and his teammates, giving Philly that ever-elusive second playmaker they’ve so often lacked.

Averaging 21.1 points a game in only 30 minutes of action, while knocking down 78 percent of his free throws, 48 percent of his shots from the field, and 36.9 percent of his 3 point range, Russell’s the type of player who can perch on the wings and impact the game without the ball in his band, but he’s just as capable of running the first, or second-team offense as a primary ball-handler.

Honestly, Russell is such good offensive weapon he could potentially unlock the Joel Embiid pick-and-roll the team has consistently struggled to execute because of Simmons’ lack of an outside shot.

Though Russell isn’t the defensive force that Butler is – and really very few players are – he is a guard-size guard who can probably guard other guard-size guards in a way that Simmons and J.J. Redick struggle to last season. That parody could be incredibly valuable, even if it would leave the team’s top of the key Robert Covington defender a glaring blind spot in the defensive rotation.

Now the addition of Russell could conceivably make Simmons’ job harder on the defensive end of the court, as he would have to elevate his game and become the new the team’s new top defender, DLo’s offensive abilities more than anything make up for it to give the team a legitimate second option in the way Butler only seemed to be at the end of games.

And potentially best of all, he won’t cost a max contract.

With $46 million in cap space to spend, the Sixers can conceivably sign one unrestricted free agent to a monster contract and still have enough money to sprinkle in role-players before locking a player like Tobias Harris or Jimmy Butler into an over-the-cap max contract.

While this would have been incredibly tricky had Russell remained a restricted free agent, as his home team has two days to match and those two days could be the difference between retaining Butler and Harris or having them leave for greener pastures, but if the Nets ultimately renounce his rights, a formality they’ll potentially exercise if Irving is in fact on the table, it frees Philly up to engage in a bidding war with the likes of the Magic, Pacers, Jazz, and Timberwolves, all of whom have shown interest in the 23-year-old’s services.

Yes, you read that right, Russell’s only 23, barely entering his prime and yet he’s already made an All-Star appearance.

Though he may not have the James Harden-type ceiling fans hoped Fultz would bring to the City of Brotherly Love, Russell is a perfect fit alongside the Sixers’ top two stars and is good enough to be the third best player on a championship team.

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By locking D’Angelo Russell into a four-year contract, the Philadelphia 76ers would finally have their own (almost) home-grown big three the likes of which we haven’t seen since Kevin Durant, and James Harden played in OKC. Throw in a re-signed Redick and a 3-and-D wing like Rudy Gay, Rodney Hood, or even Tobias Harris, and there’s no reason Philly shouldn’t be considered a favorite to come out of the east in 2020, even if Irving, Butler, Durant, and Davis all relocate to the Big Apple.