Philadelphia 76ers: Trading for Victor Oladipo is the “just right” move

The Philadelphia 76ers are a team in need of a serious supercharge of backcourt talent.

Sure, they have some solid enough options to put up points and even play a little defense when their numbers are called like Ben Simmons, Shake Milton, and Seth Curry, but are any of those players really reliable options to handle the ball with the game on the line deep into the fourth quarter of a close game?

Since putting up 42 in an undermanned effort against the Utah Jazz, Simmons is averaging 22.7 points, 6.7 assists, 6.7 rebounds, and 1.1 steals in roughly 36.4 minutes of action and has unquestionably been the Sixers’ second-best player behind everyone’s favorite MVP candidate Joel Embiid. More encouraging still, Simmons has been draining 75 percent of his 6.9 free throws per game over that seven-game stretch, a trend that would be an absolute blessing should it continue for the remainder of the season.

But still, is Simmons the kind of player you want running the show in the halfcourt in a one-point game, especially when things slow down during the playoffs?

The same, too, could be said for Milton, who is proving himself to be one of the Sixers’ best perimeter scorers but has increasingly proven that he’s better suited to be an off-ball role than running the point with any sort of frequency.

Throw out the younger Curry brother entirely, as he’s a pure shooter who plays shooting guard for a reason, and the Sixers are left with Tyrese Maxey – who Doc Rivers is incredibly hesitant to play consistently – and not much else.

Needless to say, the Philadelphia 76ers should be in the market for a new guard heading into the trade deadline, and a very intriguing option may very well be available for the taking, Kyle Lowry Victor Oladipo.

Wait, who?

Victor Oladipo is the two-way player the Philadelphia 76ers currently lack.

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Allow me to pitch a hypothetical player to you.

This player is 28, a two-time All-Star, a former steals champ, a former member of the All-Defense team, and the winner of the 2018 Most Improved Player award. This player is averaging 20 points per game, averages 4.5 assists and 5.7 rebounds a night, and remains a petulant ball hawk to the tune of 1.5 steals in 32.8 minutes of action.

Sure, he could use some work from 3 point range, as he only hits said shot at an average clip (34.8), but he’s at least willing to take 7.5 a game, which is more than any player on the Sixers by a healthy margin.

That player sounds pretty darn good, right? Well, that player is Victor Oladipo.

While many an outside observer has knocked Oladipo for having “lost some of his explosiveness” due to a ruptured quad tendon in January of 2019, apparently no one told that to the former Indiana product, as he’s playing some pretty darn good basketball down in Houston outside of the NBA playoff spotlight.

Now tasked with playing off of former Atlantic Division mainstay John Wall instead of Malcolm Brogdon, Oladipo is averaging a career-high 30.3 usage rate and taking a career-high 18.9 shots from the field, all the while keeping the Rockets in games they have no business competing in.

The Rockets apparently like Oladipo so much that they reportedly offered the 6-foot-4 Silver Springs native a two-year, $45.2 million extension to remain in Houston until 2022-23, a deal he rejected due to his desire to play for a competitor.

So, assuming the Rockets don’t want to lose a certified All-Star-caliber player for nothing, there’s a better than not chance that Oladipo finds himself in another jersey by the end of the month when the trade deadline rolls around on the 25th.

Could that new home be with the Sixers? It could and probably should, assuming the Rockets don’t decide to screen Daryl Morey’s phone calls to avoid taking an L from their former GM.

On paper – and please don’t get mad at me for this one – Oladipo has a lot in common with another former Philadelphia 76ers trade acquisition, Jimmy Butler. Like Butler, Oladipo is a great defender, a crafty ballhawk, and the kind of player who can score points when the ball is in his hands. Whether technically tasked with playing point guard, shooting guard, or even small forward in a really weird lineup facilitated by Ben Simmons’ desire to be listed as a guard, not forward.

When Simmons is running the show in either the half or full court, Oladipo can stay perched on the wings, run across the formation, or pull a J.J. Redick and deploy a heavy dose of off screens. When things aren’t clicking, or Doc Rivers opts to use Simmons as a screener, Oladipo can take over ball-handling duties and drive into the paint for a shot from anywhere on the field. Honestly, that strategy could be deployed from one play to another, or even on the very same play depending on how Rivers draws a play up; whatever works to get more points on the board.

But wait, there’s more.

Not only is Oladipo a capable ball-handler who is equally comfortable playing on and off the ball, but he’s a certified two-way player who can stay on the court in crunch time or when the Sixers really need to add some oomph to a lineup with a less than optimal +/-.

Need another scorer to play alongside Milton, Simmons, Harris, and Embiid in an offensive slugfest? Oladipo can fill that role. How about a defensive stopper to lineup between Simmons and Thybulle with a shrinking lead on the line? Oladipo can do that too. Heck, are you tired of seeing Seth Curry and Matisse Thybulle swapped out every time the Sixers foul a player in an offense for defense switch? Oladipo can guarantee that never happens again… or at least happens a whole lot less often.

Fun fact: Oladipo ranks seventh in defensive +/- and ninth in overall +/- according to ESPN, signifying that the numbers very much back up the eye test.

Though it won’t be cheap to acquire Oladipo, especially for Morey, the Rockets are all but eliminated from contention at the effective midpoint of the 2020-21 season and are reportedly looking to take back “active young player” in deals for their expiring vets.

Could new Rockets GM Rafael Stone see Tyrese Maxey’s potential being wasted on a deep bench and want to give him free rein to run an offense under the watchful eye of a veteran All-Star like John Wall? Or maybe they like Furkan Korkmaz’s good games and think he could produce them more frequently in a starting role on a team with plenty of minutes to dish out? Whether you like young guards, forwards, or bigs, the 76ers have a deep bench filled with just about every type of player a team could want and all of them could surely be had for the right price.

Factor in that any draft pick belonging to the Sixers in 2021 will surely fall outside of the top-20, and any preciousness about standing pat to find the next Tybulle or Maxey becomes a whole lot less justifiable than giving Embiid and company everything they need to succeed now.

Would the Sixers be willing to surrender a package centered around Maxey and Korkmaz with Danny Green and Terrance Ferguson thrown in for cap filler if they had to also surrender their 2021 first-round pick and maybe even another protected draft pick a few years down the line? If it can bring back another contributor like P.J. Tucker, Ben McLemore, or Simmons’ old friend Dante Exum, I’d venture to say yes.

Now sure, there is a risk to acquiring a player like Oladipo, as he’s expressed some interest in playing for the Miami Heat and is free to sign wherever he’d like this summer, but would he really want to leave the Sixers for a team that vastly underperformed in 2021 if Philly makes it all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals? Something tells me finally playing for a winner may trump a desire to not pay state taxes and live by the beach.

Whether you like Victor Oladipo, hate Victor Oladipo or fall into the “Kyle Lowry or bust category,” there is little room to argue that he’s one of the biggest names available at the 2021 NBA trade deadline. While his game isn’t perfect, and he may never become a superstar like Zach Levine, Bradley Beal, or James Harden, Oladipo can do a lot of things pretty well and could serve as a wonderful third option for the Sixers on both offense and defense moving forward. For a package not quite as pricey as what’s needed to acquire Lowry but also far more impactful than simply trading some twos for a player like Wayne Ellington, trading for Oladipo might be the “just right” move for the Philadelphia 76ers at the deadline.