Philadelphia 76ers: Derrick Favors is a weird buyout target

Daryl Morey is on a bit of a victory lap.

After blocking out the external noise, ignoring “lesser” offers, and staying true to his convictions Sonny Weaver Jr.-style, Morey got his guy in James Harden at the trade deadline and didn’t even have to say goodbye to Tyrese Maxey or Matisse Thybulle to do it.

For a general manager who quite literally has an artistic rendering of Harden hanging in his home/office/home office, that’s huge.

So naturally, with his roster more or less set, Morey is being rather candid with the process of how the Philadelphia 76ers got to this point, and as a result, fans have been afforded a few solid nuggets of information they likely wouldn’t have been privy to otherwise.

Take, for example, Morey’s anecdote on The Collin Cowherd Podcast about offering not one but two first-round picks for a Western Conference player a few days prior to the Harden deal. While Morey obviously didn’t call out the player by name, as that would definitely be tampering, it showcased how quickly things can change in the NBA and gave folks something to hypothesize about moving forward.

Sidebar: My guess is Lu Dort. How about you?

But of all of the big quotes so far on Morey’s post-trade deadline, pre-All-Star Break media tour, none are as immediately noteworthy as what he described on The Rights to Ricky Sanchez podcast, where he unofficially announced that the team is pretty close to securing a buyout candidate but can’t announce it yet because the player is presumably still under contract with his soon-to-be-former team.

Tampering once more? That’s for the NBA to decide, but for fans in Philly, including RTRS podcast host Michael Levin, the clues, when coupled with Morey’s previous comments on targeting a buyout big, have left one leader in the clubhouse in regards to the player in question.

Could Derrick Favors be a member of the Philadelphia 76ers before March 1st? Potentially so. Should he be the team’s buyout market target? That, my friends, is much less clear.

Do the Philadelphia 76ers really need another center more than a shooter?

Okay, now before we wade too deep in the weeds of it, who is Derrick Favors, the player?

The third-overall pick in the 2010 NBA Draft by the New Jersey Nets, Favors is in the middle of his 12th NBA season and, at 30-years-old, has appeared in 789 regular season games plus 42 more in the playoffs as a member of the Nets, Utah Jazz, New Orleans Pelicans, and OKC Thunder. He’s been traded three times, played alongside multiple All-Stars, and is currently signed to a three-year, $29.16 million contract with a $10.18 million player option for the 2022-23 season.

Could Favors reject a buyout offer from the Thunder and declare his desire to opt into his option for the 2022-23 season? Sure, while Favors has earned north of $120 million in his career thus far, his current contract is likely his final opportunity to earn more than the veteran minimum/part of a mid-level exception moving forward, and that financial opportunity may prove more valuable than a shot at returning to the playoffs for the second-straight season.

Furthermore, the OKC Thunder currently only have $90 million in used cap this season, with $26 million of that going to Kemba Walker’s dead money cap hit. With only $77.4 million in active contracts on the books heading into next season, it may be in the Thunder’s best favor to keep Favors until the summer, as they could use his contract as matching salary in a trade or simply pursue a buyout next year once his contract becomes guaranteed.

Then again, Favors hasn’t averaged 20-plus minutes since the 2019-20 season and may soon find his time in the NBA up. If he can join a team with a puncher’s chance at earning a ring, why not take a pay cut to go out on top? He’s reportedly been a great teammate/mentor to the Thunder’s young core, and playing limited minutes at this point in his career could help to prolong his playing window by a few more years.

If Favors and the Thunder decide to pursue the latter, then to the buyout market he will go, where multiple organizations, including his long-time team, the Utah Jazz, will surely give him a call.

But should the Philadelphia 76ers call as well? Well, I guess that depends on what the team is looking for in a potential buyout target.

If, for example, the Sixers want to add another big body who operates in the paint, sets solid screens, and rebounds into the double-digits Per 36, then yeah, Favors might just be the best option on the market. Favors has ranked in the 70th or better percentile as a pick-and-roll screen setter in three of the past four seasons and has scored roughly 90 percent of his points on the season from 2 point range while shooting 51.7 percent of his 4.7 shots per game, so he could serve as a solid minutes eater at both ends of the court.

Pair Favors up with James Harden – or Tyrese Maxey for that matter – and it’s not too hard to see a solid pick-and-roll tandem forming, with an additional big body to crash the boards and benefit from a well-placed lob folded into the fray.

But in the NBA, where teams only have 17 roster sports if you count two-way contracts, is Favors’ fit alongside Harden more valuable than, say, pursuing a 3-and-D shooting guard like Gary Harris, especially with Paul Millsap, Paul Reed, and Charles Bassey already in place?

Between you and me, I sort of doubt it.

Yes, Favors is a grizzled pro who can play both alongside Joel Embiid or in place of him, but frankly, so is Millsap, who has actually played 13,887 more NBA minutes up to this point. And what about Favors’ ability to switch on defense, set screens, and cut to the basket for a lop dunk off of a dime? Reed can do that too, and at 22, he’s a good bit younger than Favors too.

And as for Charles Bassey? Heck, he’s shown some solid production on the court too, even though he’s probably the least likely to actually get minutes in the meritocracy of Rivers’ rotation. With three options already on the table and a severe lack of wing shooting outside of Harden, Maxey, and Danny Green, is the need to further fortify the frontcourt with another non-shooter really the best use of a potentially pivotal 15th roster spot, especially after watching the disaster known as the Boston-Philadelphia regular season finale? Yeah, I sort of doubt it.

In a way, Derrick Favors is like if “The Two Pauls,” Reed and Millsap were CatDog’d together into one player. He’s a vet with solid athleticism, good intangibles, and an effective game that’s playoff-ready, but unless Millsap can become the second coming off Ersan Ilyasova as a floor spacer, it’s hard to see how Favors’ addition to the Philadelphia 76ers is going to elevate the team’s on-court product, especially with such glaring holes in the shooting department. While there are certainly worse players to target on the open market, the addition of Favors would present more questions than answers and could turn out to be more of a marginal upgrade than a legitimate way to fill a hole on the roster. Better to target a shooter who could play into the 20s in the playoffs if everything works out than another backup big who might average 12 minutes a game in the playoffs.