Philadelphia 76ers: Keep an eye on “BBall” Paul Reed post-trade deadline

The Philadelphia 76ers are in a pretty good position heading into the 2021 NBA trade deadline.

They have the best record in the Eastern Conference, at least one player and their head coach heading to the All-Star Game, and a well-diversified asset portfolio ripe to be cashed in for at least one roster-shaking deal.

They have contracts of varying sizes and lengths, multiple trade exceptions, $4.8 million of their mid-level taxpayer exception, and almost all of their future draft pick plus a few additional seconds from around the league. Assuming Daryl Morey wants to guarantee himself a legitimate contributor instead of having to duke it out with other contenders like the Nets, Lakers, and Clippers for a potential player’s services, the best way to knock that out would be to give up something of value with the requisite contracts needed to get that deal done.

Complicated? Maybe a little, but it doesn’t have to be.

In the NBA, unlike, say, the NFL, teams that are over the cap – like the Sixers – can only complete trades where the money out is equal to the money in plus or minus 25 percent or $100,000, whichever is higher. So, if the Sixers were to go out and trade for a player like P.J. Tucker, who makes roughly $7.96 million, they would need to include contracts worth no less than $5.97 million and no more than $9.95 million – assuming, of course, the team doesn’t use their trade exceptions to offset some of the financial burdens.

So, assuming the Sixers want to trade for Tucker, they have two options to do so, either trade for his contract using their $8.19 million exception and only surrender picks, or trade for his services by surrendering assets and between $5.97 and $9.95 million in contracts to make the deal legal.

To pull that off, the Sixers would need to trade multiple players, most likely some combination of Mike Scott, Terrance Furgeson, Vincent Poirier, Tony Bradley, or Furkan Korkmaz, assuming the Rockets view the Turkish sharpshooter as a plus asset.

Why is this relevant? Well, because if the Sixers are going to surrender multiple players in a trade that only brings one back, they are going to need to fill out any remaining roster spots with external players to head into the playoffs with a full 15 man roster.

But who on earth would the Sixers be able to sign on such short notice? Hm… if only there was a player who was with the team during camp, played for the team before, and still has good relationships with many of the team’s best players.

Paul Reed could earn a one-way contract with the Philadelphia 76ers after all.

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For the sake of argument, let’s say the Philadelphia 76ers exit the trade deadline with two new players and an empty roster spot. They were able to land the bigger wing Adrien Wojnarowski reports the team is in the market for – let’s just say Tucker for argument’s sake – and landed another guard who can play a little defense and shoot the ball alright – let’s say, Norman Powell.

For the Sixers, that would be a dream come true and would all but surely solidify Doc Rivers’ playoff rotation alongside the starters, Matisse Thybulle and Shake Milton.

But, and I know this is a crazy concept, a team can’t survive on a nine-man rotation alone, not in the regular season anyway. Assuming the Sixers roll into the playoffs with a healthy lead on the first overall playoff spot in the East, they’ll likely need to rely on a few bench-heavy contests to give players like Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid, and Tobias Harris some rest before the “live bullets” start to fly.

So, even if they truly are the 14th and 15th men, the Sixers would be wise to still fill those roster spots.

One obvious player who will likely get the first crack at such an opening – assuming the team doesn’t go full-on crazy and sign a bought-out vet like Blake Griffin – is 2020 second-round pick, Paul Reed. Though his first five performances with the Sixers haven’t been particularly noteworthy – outside of a six-point, seven-rebound performance against the Nuggets – “BBall” Paul has been balling out in the G-League Orlando Bubble.

Though the sample size is rather small, only six games, Reed is averaging the second-most points (23.8), the third most steals (2.3), the fourth-most rebounds (12.3), and the highest efficiency (32.7) of any player in the entire G-League. Paired up with fellow two-way contract player Rajon Tucker, Reed is playing lights-out basketball by G-League standards – throwing down sick dunks, crashing the boards, and most impressively of all, hitting 3 pointers from the NBA line at a 40.9 percent clip.

Haven’t caught a Blue Coats game yet this season? You’re in luck; highlights of most games are on YouTube, so you can catch “BBall” do his thing.

See what I mean? That’s some good stuff.

With the G-League locked into a bubble from February 10th through March 6th, Reed will get plenty more opportunities to show off and show out on the game’s second-biggest stage, but when the league’s eventual tournament comes to an end,19 days before the trade deadline, Reed and Tucker will be returned to the Sixers where they’ll be eligible to play in the team’s remaining regular season games.

Assuming Reed can showcase his abilities on the court in a few as of yet unannounced games before the deadline, I see no reason why Morey and company wouldn’t want to sign him to a full-on NBA contract Norvell Pelle-style to keep him playoff eligible.

It makes sense, right? Reed has undoubtedly proven himself a player worthy of a spot on the 15 man rotation and will surely be signed to the same four-year rookie-scale contract Shake Milton landed before the 2019-20 season. Why not expedite the process by a few months and incorporate the 21-year-old DePaul product into the rotation over the final few months of the season? That sure could pay more dividends than signing a stopgap contributor with no real chance to be a part of the team’s present or future.

Whether Paul Reed makes the Philadelphia 76ers’ roster in March, April, or the Fall of 2021, it’s clear he’s done enough to earn a spot on the team moving forward. Measuring in at 6-foot-9, 210 pounds, he has great size to one day become a rotational forward, the G-League pedigree of many of the league’s best young prospects, and a solid, positive attitude that has made him a must-follow on Twitter. If that isn’t the type of player worthy of a “promotion,” I don’t know who is.