Philadelphia 76ers: The tricky path to a Jalen Brunson trade

Jalen Brunson is a certified Philadelphia sports hero.

He brought not one but two championships back to the Mainline during his time point guarding the Villanova Wildcats, is as hardcore a Philadelphia Eagles fan as you or I, and had kept his loyalty to the City of Brotherly Love intact despite playing his professional ball in the heart of Cowboys country.

If Brunson never returns to Philadelphia again for anything other than an away game or an alumni weekend, that will unquestionably ring true eternally, but to some, the idea of bringing the pride of New Brunswick back to the East Coast for another championship run in the Delaware Valley has remained appealing since he was drafted by the Dallas Mavericks 33rd overall back in 2018.

If you fall into that camp, you are not alone, as the NBA Analysis Network dubbed the Philadelphia 76ers the team most in need of a Jalen Brunson trade.

Could Jalen Brunson and Tyrese Maxey form a dynamic point guard duo for the Philadelphia 76ers?

First and foremost, why would the Dallas Mavericks want to trade Jalen Brunson? He’s off to the best start of his career, just dropped 31 points in 36 minutes in a 109-108 win over the San Antonio Spurs, and is currently tied for second on the Mavs in average points per game at 15 alongside fellow second-generation NBA player Tim Hardaway Jr.

Well, for one thing, the Mavericks were unable to agree to a contract with Brunson heading into the season, which will allow the 6-foot-1 guard to hit unrestricted free agency upon season’s end. While that isn’t necessarily the kiss of death for a franchise, as plenty of unrestricted free agents return to their team if the market isn’t right, just ask Danny Green or Furkan Korkmaz, the general consensus among some Mavericks fans appears to be that the team will either let Brunson walk for nothing or sign him to a deal he won’t live up to, especially considering his clear 1B status at point guard behind Luka Doncic.

For those wondering, Brunson and Doncic have shared the court for precisely 117 minutes through the first seven games of the regular season and hold a –3.5 net rating for their troubles. Their two-man lineup ranks 28th on the team in offensive rating, and their defensive rating ranks quite a bit lower at 70th out of 100 possible combinations.

In a way, Brunson is the antithesis of the sort of player who fits alongside Doncic. Only 17.2 percent of his shots come off of spot-up attempts from beyond the arc – good for about two attempts per game – and as a whole, Brunson is a much more comfortable scorer driving to the basket than attempting 3-pointers, as his efficiency numbers spell out.

Granted, teams do need a backup player even at a position where they have a star player in place, just ask Andre Drummond and Joel Embiid, but ideally, if you’re going to give a reserve guard Fred VanVleet money, it’s probably best for him to at least give you positive minutes playing alongside your franchise player.

And then there’s the matter of the rest of the Mavericks’ roster, which isn’t quite up to snuff either when compared to the sheer firepower the Western Conference had to offer. Outside of Doncic, Brunson, and Hardaway, the Mavericks only have one other player, Kristaps Porzingis, who is averaging double-digit points per game, and he currently holds a WAR of -.1 despite being a max contract player.

If this holds up, will the Mavericks get bounced from the playoffs for the third-straight season with Doncic in place as their franchise player?

Needless to say, there are more questions surrounding the Mavericks than most third seeds at this point in the season.

So, assuming the Mavericks feel the same way about their backup point guard as about half of their fanbase does, could they look to shake things up early on and flip Brunson out of town for a more complete guard and/or a better-fitting forward?

If so, the Philadelphia 76ers should 100 percent be in on the deal, even if they may not have the requisite parts needed to get a deal done.

Assuming Ben Simmons is off the table, which he 100 percent would be unless the deal expands out to additional teams, the best package the Sixers could likely extend to the Mavs for Brunson’s services would be centered around Shake Milton, Paul Reed, and draft compensation. While they could offer up a player like Jaden Springer, who may have the highest value of the trio, he fits the Mavericks’ win-now timeline about as well as he fits that of the Sixers, i.e., not very well.

In Milton, the Mavericks would secure a bigger guard who is under contract through the 2022-23 season. While Milton isn’t as efficient a 3-point shooter as Brunson, he takes them at a higher clip, and brings a different set of skills to the table that could mesh better alongside Luka. With some further work on his game under Hall of Famer Jason Kidd, maybe Milton could fill out his game and become more than just a double-digit Energizer Bunny coming off the bench.

Milton is also a Texas product, which doesn’t really matter, but may get a few more SMU fans to the American Airlines Center than in years prior.

And what about Reed, what would he bring to the table for the Mavericks?

Well, for one, Reed is a versatile combo forward who can handle the ball a little bit, rebound well, and even shoot 3s from the G-League line – which is also the NBA line – at a quality clip. While Doc Rivers has been particularly apathetic to giving the reigning G-League MVP a ton of run alongside Joel Embiid and company, maybe the idea of pairing Reed up with another combo forward like Dorrien Finney-Smith could unlock his potential at the NBA level.

Throw in a few second rounders, and I would imagine Daryl Morey would take that deal as a nice stopgap while he waits for a player like Damian Lillard to become available.

But would the Mavericks actually accept such an offer? Maybe under former GM Donn Nelson, who notoriously traded Seth Curry to the Sixers for Josh Richardson and a second-round pick, but new GM Nico Harrison is a notoriously savvy operator who has long been the target of NBA franchises during his time at Nike. If he’s going to make a trade involving Brunson, I would assume it would be for a higher profile player than Shake Milton, even if Paul Reed was thrown into the mix.

If, however, Harrison was game to make a deal, it’s easy to imagine Brunson on the court with Sixers.

For one, Brunson would instantly become the Sixers’ best passer, as the Villanova floor general averaged 4.6 during his final season on the Mainline and is dishing out 4.3 now as a pro. He’s also a legitimate full court scorer, who can hit shots from anywhere on the court and remain on the court in clutch situations either in place of Tyrese Maxey or alongside him in movement-heavy looks.

And best of all? Brunson currently holds the seventh-highest total Raptor rating of any player in the Association, which is a noted favorite metric of Morey.

Do the Philadelphia 76ers need another point guard? Yes. As much as Shake Milton has been an asset to the team since his return, the team is desperate for another more experienced lead ball-handler who can drive to the basket, his 3s, and run Doc Rivers’ offense. At 25, Jalen Brunson is much closer in age to Joel Embiid than Tyrese Maxey, and would bring an obvious winning pedigree to the team thanks to his storied time at Villanova. I just don’t see it happening, even if it would be a very intriguing early season move.