Philadelphia 76ers: Zach Lowe provides perspective on Seth Curry trade

In a weird twist of fate, the Philadelphia 76ers were not one of the “angsty” teams discussed on the most recent episode of Zach Lowe‘s podcast.

I know, crazy, right? How could the fans of a team in the midst of a brutal five-game losing streak not feel that certain breed of existential dread that comes about from their preferred basketball team not playing particularly well? Have Philly fans lost their signature edge? Has so much misery numbed the soul?

Easy; this was to be expected.

Sure, it would have been nice for the Sixers to pull out at least a few of these wins, especially against the Toronto Raptors and the Indiana Pacers, but when any team is without two of their top six players for a prolonged period – three if you count the whole Ben Simmons situation – even the most fanatical of supporters can take a deep breath and wait for things to even out before declaring that the sky is falling.

At fuller strength, the Sixers are 8-2 on the season and have looked very good; for most, that’s enough.

But, in another weird twist of fate, the Philadelphia 76ers actually sort of were brought up on the aforementioned edition of Zach Lowe’s podcast (which you can listen to here) but for the best reason possible: Seth Curry.

The Philadelphia 76ers elevated their ceiling by trading for Seth Curry.

Alright, so let me set the stage; Zach Lowe and his guest, Kevin Pelton, were discussing whether or not the Portland Trail Blazers have wasted Damian Lillard‘s pride by never pairing him up with an external star.

They talked about the poor decisions general manager Neil Olshey made during the summer of 2016, when he gave big-money deals to Allen Crabbe, Meyers Leonard, and Evan Turner, how the decision to trade two first-round picks to the Houston Rockets for Robert Covington hasn’t quite been as helpful as expected, and the team’s inability to capitalize on the 2019-20 season, as they lost both Zach Collins and Jusuf Nurkić for much of the season.

Granted, every team has moves they surely regret – see most of the Philadelphia 76ers’ draft picks from 2016-18 – but in Lowe’s eyes, the biggest issue the Blazers had during Lillard’s prime was an inability to take a perceived single and turn it into an inside-the-park home run.

Lowe’s example: Seth Curry.

You see, back in 2018, the Trail Blazers signed the younger Curry brother to a one-year contract worth $2.8 million with a non-guaranteed second-year player option for the 2019-20 season. While Curry ultimately wasn’t a massive gamechanger for the Blazers, as he only averaged 7.9 points in 18.9 minutes of action a night, he did enough to garner a four-year, $32 million contract from the Dallas Mavericks – the contract he’s currently on – and eventually, get traded to the Sixers in exchange for Josh Richardson and the draft rights of Tyler Bey.

In Philly, Curry has transformed himself from a spot-starting sixth man to one of the most lethal starting two guards in the business, a high-volume shooter who can hit from anywhere and has developed some very nice secondary playmaking abilities. But acquiring Curry the player isn’t the difference between the Sixers and the Trail Blazers. The Blazers already had Curry and didn’t use him as much as players like Al-Farouq Aminu and Rodney Hood. No, Lowe’s point has more to do with the return versus the value, which is where Philly got very lucky.

Had, say, former Philly first-round pick Evan Turner turned into Ben Simmons as a member of the Blazers on a four-year, $70 million contract, it would have elevated Portland tremendously. Had Anfernee Simons developed into the second-coming of CJ McCollum by his second professional season, maybe the Blazers would have been able to package the actual CJ McCollum – or Simons for that matter – plus picks for the sort of marquee frontcourt player. Heck, had the Blazers just secured Carmelo Anthony a few years earlier, when both Lillard and McCollum were recruiting him in 2017, maybe the Blazers would have more than one Western Conference Finals appearance since 2012.

By trading for Seth Curry and having him transcend his asking price to an exceptional degree, the Philadelphia 76ers elevated their ceiling, at least in the eyes of Zach Lowe. They turned an average fifth starter and an okay pick into arguably the team’s fourth-best player and provided Joel Embiid and company with a perfect marksman on the wings in a league where 3 point shooting couldn’t be more valuable. If the Portland Trail Blazers had hit on a similar sort of return at any point over the last half-decade, maybe Terry Stotts would still have a job, and Damian Lillard wouldn’t have had to spend the summer debating his future.