Philadelphia 76ers: A Mike Scott trade could get emotionally complicated

While trading Mike Scott may be the right move for the Philadelphia 76ers, that doesn’t make it any easier for his adoring fanbase.

Going into the 2019-20 season, Mike Scott was the Patron Saint of a particular brand of hardcore, Twitter-centric Philadelphia 76ers fan.

Initially considered an afterthought in the massive six-player trade with the Los Angeles Clippers that also netted Philly Tobias Harris and Boban Marjanovic for Landry Shamet, Mike Muscala, Wilson Chandler and picks, Scott quickly found a home in the City of Brotherly Love thanks to his toughness, 3-and-D mentality, and for, you know, not being no B****.

After journeying around the league on four teams in seven years, Scott seemingly had it all; a new two-year, $9.8 million contract, a chance to compete for a championship, and his own rabid fanbase ‘The (Mike Scott) Hive’.

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Scott was so popular that fans forgave him for being a Washington Redskins fan and openly embraced his presence at tailgates – well at least most of them did.

But boy oh boy, what a difference a season can make.

Since the start of the regular season some four months ago, Scott’s bright spots have become fewer and farther between, with a slew of ugly outing and ineffective shooting performances filling out what looks to be a down year for the 31-year-old pro.

Granted, this wouldn’t be a huge problem if Scott was making up for it on the defensive end of the court – James Ennis is a bad shooter yet remains the team’s biggest bargain – but even that aspect of his game has taken a step back for seemingly no reason.

If you aren’t shooting the 3 well, and can’t effectively defend multiple positions on the wing, are you even really a 3-and-D wing? Maybe so, but not an effective one.

So needless to say, with the trade deadline fast approaching and this team needing some serious upgrades to even flirt with an Eastern Conference Finals spot, it’s not hard to connect the dots and assumes that Scott and his sizable cap hit could be anything but untouchable, if not very, very touchable in a potential move.

But how should we all feel about that?

One one hand, any move that makes the Sixers better will obviously make the Sixer, you know, better, and clearly, that is a plus for fans of the Sixers (duh). If Elton Brand can pull off some Elton Brand trickery and swap out Scott for a sharpshooter like Bogdan Bogdanovic, Davis Bertans, or one of the Morris Twins you kind of have to do it, right?

However, just because a deal makes the team better doesn’t mean it wouldn’t hurt on a personal level to see the combo forward go. After years fandom, it was by no means fun to watch players like T.J. McConnell, Robert Covington, or Dario Saric come to town in different jerseys, and while Scott’s tenure has been more abbreviated, that doesn’t make it any less real, ya know?

In this new era of connectivity, fans are fans of players sometimes even more than even teams, and become attached to players as a result – may be to an unhealthy level at times.

Next. With volume comes success for Furkan Korkmaz. dark

Who knows, maybe Mike Scott turns things around and outpaces Furkan Korkmaz as the Philadelphia 76ers once and future sixth man, but if he continues to shoot the 3 ball as a sub-25 percent clip in the month of January, we may have to prepare for a Hive-less future in the not too distant future. #FurkanClan confirmed?