Philadelphia 76ers: Kyle O’Quinn is turning into a nice trade chip

If Kyle O’Quinn continues to play lights out in limited action, he may become a solid trade chip for the Philadelphia 76ers over the forthcoming weeks.

Kyle O’Quinn may be the most situationally specific player on the Philadelphia 76ers.

When given adequate minutes to put in work, O’Quinn is fully capable of putting up double-digit points coming off the bench, as evidenced by the 76ers’ recent win over the Cleveland Cavaliers. However, in the blink of an eye, KOQ will then go on to pick up DNPs at an alarming rate – missing one game, one week, or even more by coach’s decision.

And barring disaster, that won’t change anytime soon.

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By fielding one of the least conventional starting fives in the NBA, featuring two centers and a point guard who moonlights as a power forward, the 76ers typically only deploy three power forwards/centers in any given game in Joel Embiid, Al Horford, and Mike Scott – four if you count 6-foot-6 combo forward James Ennis. That means barring injury or a scheduled rest day, O’Quinn will only be inserted into a game in garbage time or in cases of foul trouble.

For the Sixers, a team that has struggled mightily to find reliable backup minutes at the five over the last few seasons, this forced correction has afforded Brett Brown with a wealth of big men to work with, but with only 48 minutes of action in any given game, someone is going to get left out.

That player has been O’Quinn – at least for right now.

You see, even though O’Quinn may remain a streaky part-time player for the foreseeable future the Sixers, it’s pretty safe to say there are a dozen or so teams across the NBA who would love to add the 29-year-old to their rotation – and said teams would likely be willing to part with a marginal asset to make a deal work.

Surely the 76ers could flip O’Quinn for a distant second-round pick down the line, but it’s also possible that a team could instead pull off a relatively rare player-for-player deal in a marginal swap of mismatched assets to further fortify their bench. Similarly, Elton Brand could package O’Quinn with another veteran minimum contract player like Trey Burke to add a player worth ever so slightly above $4 million.

That extra financial leeway opens up potential deals for players like Ryan Arcidiacono, Malik Beasley, or our old friend Boban Marjanovic who could not be had for O’Quinn’s contract straight up.

To be frank, the 76ers may opt to move on from O’Quinn regardless based solely on the impressive play and unique energy of two-way contract center Norvel Pelle. While O’Quinn is clearly the better of the two right now, it’s far more common to employ an NBA youngster as a third-string reliever than a player conceivably in the middle of his ‘prime’.

Though any deal including Kyle O’Quinn won’t rise to the level of lottery jackpot rewards as what the Washington Wizards will surely receive for Dāvis Bertāns, Elton Brand deserves a ton of credit for identifying an undervalued player regardless of position and giving him a contract. Regardless of where O’Quinn finishes out the season, it’s safe to say that initial investment has been paid out many times over for the Philadelphia 76ers .