Philadelphia 76ers: A trade for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is unrealistic

For a three-ish year period, the Philadelphia 76ers were bad.

They averaged 15.6 wins per season, .4 fewer games than the 2021-22 Phoenix Suns won in the month of November alone, and cycled through players like a Wawa cycles through specialty beverages.

*Spoiler alert* that’s a lot.

Why, you may ask, is this relevant in this, the Year of our Lord 2021? Well because the Sixers never lost any of their Process games by 73. In fact, no team had ever lost by that lopsided a margin… at least, until the OKC Thunder accomplished the feat, if you want to call it that, in a Thursday night bout against the Ja Morant-less Memphis Grizzlies.

A predictable outcome? Considering Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Josh Giddey were both out for the contest, a loss was borderline guaranteed, but as Process-era Sixers have known all too well, that level of tanking draws more than the attention of local media. While it’s doubtful Jerry Colangelo will be stepping in for Sam Presti anytime soon, the Thunder’s absolute ineptness has made many a fan around ask if SGA, the team’s top overall player, could eventually either want out or hit the block in the further pursuit of draft capital.

The good news? According to Dave Early, the Philadelphia 76ers’ brass has taken part in such conversations internally, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander surely one of the 30 players on Daryl Morey’s Ben Simmons trade list. The bad news? There’s basically no chance such a deal gets done.

The Philadelphia 76ers shouldn’t get too into the idea of SGA in red, white, and blue.

Doc Rivers has coached hundreds of players over his 20 years on various benches across the NBA.

Some, like Paul George, Paul Pierce, and Paul, Chris have been among the best to ever play the game. Others, innumerable to count, have been good to not so good, with a few players like Tobias Harris following somewhere in-between.

So, when Rivers praised Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in the lead up to the Clippers-drafted guard’s first trip back to LA, via the following quote aggregated by Thunderwire, it felt genuine.

“He’s the greatest kid,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers said of Gilgeous-Alexander this week. “I don’t know if I’ve had a more favorite young player, like, he’s the best. Just still innocent enough, you know, hopefully that stays.”

See what I mean? Considering Rivers’ noted disinterest in giving minutes to rookie players, that is pretty darn glowing.

While Gilgeous-Alexander didn’t really come into his own as a rookie under Rivers, that would happen in Year 2 as the focal point of the post-Russell Westbrook Thunder, there was genuinely a lot to like about the lottery pick’s in-court performance. Playing alongside once and future Sixers like Harris, Mike Scott, Boban Marjanovic, and Landry Shamet, SGA averaged 10.8 points, 3.3 assists, 2.8 rebounds, and 1.2 steals per game as a near-every game starter at the point/shooting guard position, depending on his front court partner in crime.

Are those numbers great? Eh, not particularly, but for a rookie they are solid, especially considering his hybrid role at both ends of the court. Had SGA been allowed to continue on with Harris, Danilo Gallinari, and company, maybe the Clippers would have still dashed their postseason drought with a playoff berth in 2019, but alas it wasn’t meant to be. The Clippers completely reshaped their roster with the additions of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, and Gilgeous-Alexander became “the guy” in OKC.

Fast forward three years into the future and SGA is a legit 20 points per game scorer, an above-average shooter from range on a pretty high clip, and had even started to average average point guard-level assists per game, which may sound like an insult but is actually a pretty impressive accomplishment, as close watchers of Tyrese Maxey‘s game will tell you.

Would an all-Kentucky backcourt in Philadelphia actually work? Short-term, it might be a tad awkward, as neither ex-Wildcat is yet the sort of dead-eyed marksman from deep that teams covet at the two-guard spot, but having a pair of impressive young point guards is unquestionably better than one.

The problem? The Thunder aren’t going to trade SGA for anything but a King’s ransom, that is, if they’d trade him at all.

Sure, there were rumors around the draft that the Thunder may be willing to listen to offers on Gilgeous-Alexander, but that never felt legitimate. The Thunder gave SGA a max extension back in August and even if they don’t want to win now, SGA is the type of player who is good enough to build around long-term, especially since he won’t turn 24 until July of 2022.

Could Daryl Morey blow Presti away with a James Harden-esque trade offer like, say, Ben Simmons, Matisse Thybulle, four first-round picks, and four pick swaps? Yeah, as much as I’m sure Presti likes Simmons, I doubt he’d turn down arguably the most lopsided trade of the decade, but between you and me, I don’t see that happening. Gilgeous-Alexander’s value to the Thunder is more than it is to any other team, and thus, agreeing to a trade just isn’t viable, especially since the Thunder don’t need to trade their best player.

Would a Big 3 of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Tyrese Maxey, and Joel Embiid be good enough to make the Philadelphia 76ers the best team in the East? Probably not, but that lineup would certainly be better than the team right now, which is all the Philadelphia 76ers can really ask for, considering the increasing discomfort of having to play complete teams without a full deck of cards. Oh well, I guess there’s always the next trade target to pine for.