Does the Cam Reddish trade actually help the Philadelphia 76ers?

Cam Reddish is a Del Valley kid.

He was born in Norristown, split his high school ball between the Haverford School in Haverford and the Westtown School in West Chester, and was named Mr. Pennsylvania Basketball in 2018.

While his chances of landing with the Philadelphia 76ers in the 2019 NBA Draft felt like a longshot, to say the least, as the one-and-done Dukie was a member of one of the most hyped-up college teams in recent memory, it’s always nice to see a local kid made good, even if it came as a member of the Atlanta Hawks.

And yet, in a weird twist of fate, that didn’t happen. No, after largely underperforming expectations at Duke during his lone season in Durham, Reddish’s transition to the NBA level took a little longer than many had hoped, with his stats just now approaching what many expected from the Norristown native as a rookie.

With De’Andre Hunter drafted one year later and a bloated roster of players now on the chopping block, Cam Reddish’s long-term future with the Hawks became murky at best, and he was ultimately traded along with Soloman Hill and a second-round pick to the New York Knicks for a 2022 first-round pick and Kevin Knox, who, get this, was actually drafted higher than the pride of Duke one year earlier.

Alright, alright, alright, so what’s the point of all of this? Why spend so much time pontificating on a Philly kid who is now a member of the New York Knicks? Well, because the Atlanta Hawks have been a surging Ben Simmons suitor, and they just traded a player many earmarked as a potential deal sweetener for the Charlotte Hornets’ 2022 first-round pick. Weirdly enough, this move could either mean something, nothing, or everything to the Philadelphia 76ers.

Atlanta now has another pick to offer the Philadelphia 76ers.

If there’s one thing the Philadelphia 76ers want above all else in a trade centered around Ben Simmons, it’s veteran contributors who fit well alongside Joel Embiid.

If that player is an established star, a Damian Lillard/Bradley Beal-type, if you will, then the team would be more than content to attach future draft capital to get a deal done. If a deal instead centers around roleplayers who are on expiring contracts, then one would assume that the draft compensation required to make a deal work would be akin to the picks Houston got back for James Harden.

Let’s say, just for the sake of argument, that the Philadelphia 76ers actually wanted to make a deal with the Atlanta Hawks centered around Ben Simmons, maybe the package headlined by Bogdan Bogdanovic and John Collins that folks around the internet are warming up to; which is more valuable to Daryl Morey, a 2022 first-round pick or Cam Reddish, a player who was inactive for 14 of the Hawks’ 18 playoff games last season?

For as fun as it would have been to see Reddish on the court in red, white, and blue, it’s probably the pick, as it keeps Philly in the running for the sort of star player the front office seemingly values above all else.

Could Reddish have been a useful piece in a trade expanded out to three or even four teams? Sure, the Indiana Pacers were reportedly interested in Reddish’s services, and they have a number of players who could help the Sixers right now, but clearly, that evaluation wasn’t what Morey wanted to do. Any trade, even one with the Hawks sans John Collins, would have to bring back at minimum rotation players like Bogdanovic and Danilo Gallinari to make the deal work financially alongside draft compensation, which, in turn, would help the Sixers out in the short-term more than a player who isn’t playing. The only real players worthy of taking draft compensation off the board would be legit difference-makers like Collins or Tyrese Haliburton from the Sacramento Kings, both of whom are very much in play and should be on the Sixers’ target list depending on the available deals.

And if not? Well, if some team is in dire enough straits to aggressively pursue Simmons as a mid-season campaign saver, surely they’d be willing to offer up a bigger draft haul in the hopes of keeping their staff employed over waiting for the summer when better players could become available.

The Philadelphia 76ers are not the Los Angeles Lakers. They have almost all of their draft picks, a number of young, exciting players, and a roster that is currently stuck in a holding pattern while they wait for a roster-reshaping deal. While trading away a player and draft picks for a short-term save like, say, Caris LeVert, would surely put a few more wins on the board, such a player isn’t going to save the season or put the team over the top. Unless Philly can secure the sort of long-term building blocks worthy of placing alongside Joel Embiid, landing players like Cam Reddish, who would need to be extended off of his potential, isn’t as valuable as another first-round pick.

In summation: The Atlanta Hawks are still very much in on the Ben Simmons sweepstakes.