The Philadelphia 76ers need to reunite Eric Gordon with Daryl Morey

The Philadelphia 76ers‘ bench is weird.

They have a few good shooters, some good defenders, and an entire lineup’s worth of developmental youngsters early in rookie-scale contracts, but what the team doesn’t have, at least in my humble opinion, is a cohesive strategy or a legit sixth man.

In Houston, Daryl Morey‘s Houston Rockets had both. He had a near aversion for young players and would routinely swap out his draft picks and young, drafted players for bigger name contributors via trade and veteran players to fill out his bench via either cap space, exceptions, or minimum deals.

One of those players was Eric Gordon, who initially signed with the Rockets on a four-year, $50 million deal after a six-year run with the New Orleans Pelicans and rapidly developed into one of Houston’s top contributors alongside James Harden and a rotating cast of 1Bs.

One way or another, the Philadelphia 76ers need to figure out a way to add some blue to Eric Gordon’s wardrobe, as he’d be a perfect fit playing alongside Joel Embiid.

The Philadelphia 76ers should seriously pursue a trade for Eric Gordon.

According to both Brian Windhorst and Zach Lowe on various iterations of their respective podcasts, the Houston Rockets wouldn’t mind trading Eric Gordon before his contract expires at the end of the 2022-23 season.

On paper, it makes sense. While Gordon is one of the Rockets’ top scorers and surely a veteran presence worthy of having around on a team ready to transition from a rebuild to playoff contention, based on how the Rockets have performed as of late, that probably isn’t going to happen anytime soon.

For a team looking to win games right now, however, especially one without a ball-handling scoring guard coming off the bench, Gordon could be very, very valuable.

In Houston, Gordon played two very different but complementary roles. He’d serve as a floor spacer for Harden when the duo shared the court, a catch-and-shoot role he played well, and when the MVP needed a break, he’d earn opportunities to run the show himself, executing pick-and-rolls with the Clint Capela as a driver and secondary facilitator.

In his best season, which came in 2016-17, Gordon averaged 16.2 points and 2.5 assists with a 37.7 shooting percentage from beyond the arc on 8.8 attempts and won the Sixth Man of the Year award. But even in his worst season, which came three years later in 2018-19, Gordon still put up 14.4 points and 1.5 assists, albeit on only 31.7 percent shooting from 3.

For the 2021-22 Sixers, even Gordon’s worst stat line would look pretty good right about now, as the team only has four players averaging more points this season.

In 2021-22, Gordon’s campaign has been somewhat closer to his worst season in Houston than his best, but not by much. He’s averaging 14.6 points and 3.5 assists per game in 29.4 minutes of action, but he’s draining 44.7 percent of his 3s and drawing considerable attention from teams who value the deep ball as a result.

*spoiler alert* that’s pretty much every team looking to make some noise in the postseason.

Gordon is scoring 27.3 percent of his points on catch-and-shoot 3s, making them at a very impressive 47.3 percent clip, and though he doesn’t take very many per game, he’s hitting corner 3s at a 75 percent clip, albeit on only 10 attempts. On the pick-and-roll, Gordon is running an average of 4.8 per game and ranks in the 66.8th percentile on the play as a ball-handler behind only Christian Wood, another veteran player the Rockets would surely like to move on from, especially after his issues on New Years Day (more on that here).

Wait, both Wood and Gordon could be had at the deadline? Well, well, well, how about that?

So how could the Sixers go about acquiring Gordon? Well, in a deal where Philly only brings back Gordon, the Sixers would have to surrender at least $14.6 million in matching cap space, which would almost certainly require surrendering either Seth Curry or Danny Green – or both –  to get a deal done.

Right from the jump, that’s a no. Gordon is good, but Curry is better, and even Green isn’t that much worse.

No, the best way to pursue Gordon would be to offer up Tobias Harris, and either young players like Jaden Springer, Paul Reed, and/or Isaiah Joe or draft picks – or, again, both – in a deal that would also include either sending Wood back to Philly or to a third party with an exciting player that’s a better fit.

Would Houston take back Harris? That, my friends, is unclear. On one hand, Harris is still a very good points getter and the sort of veteran player teams like to have around young stars – see why Elton Brand extended him in the first place – but his contract is bad, and with two more years left on it after this season, a team would all but surely view that as a negative asset.

Still, as the OKC Thunder have proven, even if Harris never lives up to his current contract, if the Rockets won’t be using their cap space to pursue big-name free agents or extend their very young core over the next two seasons, weaponizing that cap space to procure young talent is a proven strategy in the NBA.

If Houston would do the deal without requiring too much draft capital, as Morey surely would like to keep max draft capital optionality for a Simmons trade, I think many a Sixers fan would personally drive Harris to the airport.

Sidebar: Before you ask, no, unless there’s a third team involved, I don’t personally see a Ben Simmons to Houston deal unless they include a boatload of picks alongside Gordon and Wood.

Whether playing alongside Tyrese Maxey as a secondary distributor or running a second unit as a primary ball-handler, Eric Gordon is a very good player on a long-term contract who is at the tail end of his NBA prime. He’d instantly become the team’s premier sixth man in ages and would provide the sort of veteran pop the Philadelphia 76ers have been desperate for over the past three seasons. If Daryl Morey wants to supercharge his roster and can convince Houston that some of his young players are more valuable than future draft picks, securing Gordon could seriously elevate a team looking for half-court scorers.