Philadelphia 76ers: Ah, the bi-annual Robert Covington trade
Welp, there you go; on a day where the Philadelphia 76ers were the center of the NBA news cycle for their advancements in the pursuit of James Harden (more on that here), two teams actually executed a trade.
Yes, you read that correctly, teams can actually make trades, not just talk about them, and sometimes they do one that is truly bizarre and leaves many a fan scratching their heads.
Remember when the Portland Trail Blazers wouldn’t trade away Damian Lillard because they wanted to remain committed to winning now? Well, how exactly does that work when they just swapped out two of their top-5 players for Eric Bledsoe, Justise Winslow, Keon Johnson, and a 2025 second-round pick?
*sigh* I guess when you’re 20 games back from first place and may not even make it out of the play-in tournament, getting out of the luxury tax is more important than going all-in on a first-round exit.
So why, you may ask, are we talking about Portland’s refusal to go all-in on a rebuild despite making a very rebuild-y move? Well, because one of the two players the Blazers surrendered just so happens to be a modern-day folk hero among fans of the Philadelphia 76ers, and no, I’m not talking about Norman Powell.
A former Philadelphia 76ers player continues on with his winding NBA journey.
Robert Covington has played for five teams and counting over the course of his nine-year NBA career.
He’s appeared in 542 games, made1,201 3 pointers, and participated in three different postseason campaigns as a member of three different NBA teams. But for fans in the Delaware Valley, RoCo will forever be remembered as a member of the Philadelphia 76ers.
A onetime G-League standout who was signed his initial NBA contract by none other than Daryl Morey, Covington spent three seasons and change with the Sixers from 2014-18 before being shipped out to Minnesota alongside Dario Saric in a deal for Jimmy Butler. Over his 307 game tenure in Philadelphia, Covington developed into one of the NBA’s better top-of-the-key defenders, an artist in the transition steal game, and a full-on perimeter player despite being a post-up player at Middle Tennessee.
And most importantly of all, he was our guy.
That’s right, Covington sort of came to personify “The Process” long before Joel Embiid made the moniker his own because he truly represented what that period of Sixers basketball was known for: ID-ing, developing, and then utilizing players from all over the NBA landscape. Despite his status as a UDFA, Covington started more games in red, white, and blue than many of his teammates who were drafted in the first round and remains a legitimate starter to this very day while some of his former teammates aren’t even in the association anymore.
Covington played small forward in Philly, center in Houston, and power forward in Portland. He filled the role of ISO perimeter defender, small-ball rim protected, and 1-4 switching specialist, and through it all, he remained a fun player to watch and an easy player to root for.
And now, or should I say next season, he’ll be playing alongside both Kawhi Leonard and Paul George on what should be one of the Western Conference’s highest ceiling teams.
Does the fit work perfectly? Eh. Technically both Leonard and George are forwards, but the Clippers have played them alongside Marcus Morris before with the latter at shooting guard, so I guess it’s possible. But regardless of who technically plays at what position, securing the services of Covington and Powell for such a meager price is an incredible feat for long-time Clippers executive Lawrence Frank, as the Blazers acquired the duo for two first-round picks and Gary Trent Jr. in the 2020 calendar year.
In the NBA, like in all practices of buying and selling, there’s a mark born every minute. If a GM with no real path to championship contention wants to get off of salary in order to save his team’s ownership group from having to pay the tax, and is willing to give up two of their best five players to do it, there are teams who will happily do the deal for pennies on the dollar. Fortunately, the Philadelphia 76ers don’t have a general manager with such a narrow vision and instead have an ownership group willing to go to almost comical extents in their pursuit of a championship. That’s how Robert Covington ended up in Philadelphia, and why his former teammate, James Harden, might soon follow suit.