Philadelphia 76ers: Keep a close eye on Bobby Portis

In case you haven’t heard, the Philadelphia 76ers are in the market for a big, franchise-altering trade for an established superstar.

Why? Well, that should be obvious: For the 20th season in a row, the Sixers were unable to make it out of the Eastern Conference, and in spite of a slew of earnest efforts, it’s clear the Big 3 of Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons, and Tobias Harris simply doesn’t fit well enough together to win it all.

While it surely will stink to move on from the crown jewel of “The Process,” trotting out the same basic roster with only some ancillary pieces changed is just asking to waste another year of Embiid’s prime.

But one aspect of pulling off such a trade has hung up some fans more than others: Trading away the team’s blue-chip young players. While some of this could be because of an affinity of the skillsets of Tyrese Maxey and Matisse Thybulle, which is totally fair, others have suggested just how hard it is to find quality reserve pieces to fill out a roster built around stars. If you feel that way, I get it; I really do. The Sixers don’t exactly have a good track record of filling out their supporting cast with well-fitting pieces, and outside of 2018, have struggled to land difference makers on minimum-level contracts, but that has more to do with poor management than a challenge of roster composition.

Need proof? Look no further than Milwaukee forward Bobby Portis, who is having a landmark year on a bargain bin contract.

The Philadelphia 76ers should look to land Bobby Portises in free agency.

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Since being selected with the 22nd overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, Bobby Portis has been the definition of a solid NBA rotational player.

Though he initially began his career as a mid-bench reserve, since fully being worked into the Bulls’ rotation as a third-year pro in 2017-18, Portis has averaged 20-plus minutes and double-digit points in each subsequent season and has been just good enough to play but not good enough to keep for three different NBA franchises.

Portis was traded midway through the 2018-19 NBA season from the Bulls to the Washington Wizards with Jabari Parker and a 2023 second-round pick for Otto Porter, signed a one-year, $15 million deal with the New York Knicks in 2019, and, after largely underwhelming in Manhattan, was forced to sign a two-year, $7.4 million deal with the Milwaukee Bucks with a player option in 2022.

Had Portis turned in another season similar to his lone campaign in NYC, averaging 10.1 points in 21.1 minutes of action, he likely would be back with the Bucks in 2021 for a little under $4 million, but fortunately for the sixth-year pro out of Arkansas, that probably won’t be the case.

No, in a truly impressive turn of events, Portis finished out the 2020-21 season with the third-best 3 point shooting percentage in the league at an astounding 47.1 percent clip on 2.4 attempts per game while scoring 11.4 points and 7.1 rebounds per game in a little over 20 minutes of action a night.

Oh yeah, and did I mention that Portis accomplished all of that in his first season transitioning from power forward to center? How ever could I forget?

So, what can we learn from this situation? Well, assuming Portis does opt out of his contract, the Philadelphia 76ers should 100 percent offer him the full(ish) value of their mid-level exception, as he’d be the exact type of player the team desperately needed versus the Hawks in the second round, but that’s not all. Even if Portis ends up elsewhere, the Sixers would be wise to sign up some former starters who are undervalued by the current market and hope that one or more really click with a change of scenery.

Fortunately, Daryl Morey has a long history of doing just that.

In Houston, Morey signed players like Ben McLemore, Austin Rivers, and, to a lesser extent, Danuel House who were undervalued by the market for one reason or another and rehabbed their careers in roles that highlighted their individual strengths. Heck, even in Philly, fans got a front-row seat to Morey’s mastery last November, where he acquired Danny Green, Seth Curry, Tony Bradley, and Dwight Howard in a matter of days.

While he didn’t lean totally in on building a win-now squad right out of the gate, as he signed three marginal bench warmers to (basically) non-guaranteed contracts and used his second two-way contract on a 25-year-old G-Leaguer by the name of Dakota Mathias, Morey showcased a much-improved understanding of roster compensation over some of his predecessors and could make some series splashes sooner than later with a season of evaluation under his belt.

Could we see a Doc Rivers-Reggie Jackson reunion if the team is in need of some additional talent at the one? How about making Ed Rendell’s dreams come true by finally signing Doug McDermott on at the mid-level exception? Heck, both McLemore and Rivers are free agents this summer and could probably be had on relatively inexpensive deals. Morey knows what he needs; now he just has to go out and get it.

Next. Marc Zumoff found ways to turn garbage into gold. dark

Building an NBA roster is both relatively easy and incredibly challenging. In theory, if a GM understands the strengths of his star players and the preferences of his head coach, it’s not hard to explicitly target players who fit that bill and avoid ones who don’t (right, Elton Brand?). But actually finding such players at positions of need in the desired price range? That, my friends, is where things get tricky. If the Philadelphia 76ers want to get the most out of their roster regardless of any blockbuster roster trades, they’ll need to identify players like Bobby Portis who fit their needs and find a way to get pen to paper without breaking the bank. Who knows, maybe that “Bobby Porter-type” player can be actual Bobby Porter? I certainly wouldn’t mind it.