Philadelphia 76ers: Goran Dragic is a fourth slice of Brooklyn pizza

Roster spots are a finite asset in the NBA.

Every team has the same access to free agency, the same number of roster spots – unless they earn a disabled player provision – and can fill out their team as they see fit within the association’s salary rules.

Some teams opt to sign multiple players to max contracts and fill out their roster with minimum contract players, others sign a number of 10-digit contracts to have a deep and varied murderers row around a single star, and others still opt to weaponize their cap space and take on bad contracts with draft selections tacked on for good measure.

Which option is the best one? That’s debatable; teams have won titles with one, two, three, and even four stars, but because teams only get so many spots on their roster, general managers can’t simply stock up on the best players available.

No, to build a reliable winner in the NBA, a team needs to consider fit and parity when composing a roster, which each piece added complementing the ones already in place.

Why is this relevant, Philadelphia 76ers fans? Well, because the Brooklyn Nets just landed a big fish on the buyout market, albeit one who plays a position they are already well-stocked at.

What the Philadelphia 76ers should learn from Brooklyn’s buyout target.

When you’re hungry, nothing hits like a Brooklyn-style pizza. From Grimaldi’s to Juliana’s, to my personal favorite, Best Pizza in Williamsburg, taking that first bite of a hot, fresh slice of pie, whether white, red, or Grandma-style, is one of the better eating experiences you’ll find on the East Coast.

But by slice four, the proverbial pie sort of loses its magic.

This concept, my friends, is the law of diminishing returns, and is just as relevant to the game of basketball as it is to spam eating pizza, wings, or White Castle sliders.

Take the Brooklyn Nets’ decision to sign Goran Dragic via the buyout market. On paper, he’s a perfect fit with Brooklyn’s style of play, as he can dribble, drive, shoot 3s, and play experienced defense, but in practice? Well, it’s sort of hard to see how Steve Nash’s one-time teammate fits into the Nets’ fray when the team already has Kyrie Irving, Ben Simmons, Patty Mills, Seth Curry, and Cam Thomas, who just hit a game-winner against the New York Knicks.

That’s… a lot of guards. Sure, some of those players can line up at multiple positions, and Simmons specifically may join the frontcourt full-time when he next throws on a black and white 10 jersey, but if Joe Harris can somehow return before the playoffs, someone, maybe even two players will be the odd man out of the rotation.

Could Dragic be that player? No, probably not; I doubt he would forgo an opportunity to play with fellow countryman Luka Doncic to sit on the bench at the Barclays Center, but is he that much better than a player like Thomas, who had been playing great both when Irving is out or when they are on the court together? That is much less clear.

While Gragic had been in the NBA for six fewer years than Thomas had been alive, his minutes have declined for six straight years, and 2020-21 marked his first season averaging less than 20 minutes per game.

Granted, could that change in Brooklyn? Maybe so, but there aren’t a lot of 35-year-old guards in the NBA, let alone ones who are playing big playoff minutes.

Alright, alright, alright, that’s all well and good, but what, you may ask, does that have to do with the Philadelphia 76ers? Well, allow me to explain.

As you may or may not know, the Sixers have been pretty heavily linked to Derrick Favors, who hasn’t technically been bought out yet but could be before March 1st. Like Dragic, Favors is a pro’s pro who could play well alongside both James Harden and Tyrese Maxey, but when you consider the Sixers have three other players on their roster who can log minutes at center – Charles Bassey, Paul Reed, and Paul Millsap – at a similar level of production.

Mind you, center is a particular position of need on the Sixers in the same way point guard is for the Nets, as both Irving and Embiid will surely miss a few games for very different reasons over the next few months, but is having Favors at center instead of Bassey really going to better position Philadelphia to eke out a regular season win? I mean, Andre Drummond only had a 4-8 record over his 12 starts for Doc Rivers, and he was widely considered the Sixers’ best backup center of the Embiid era.

Is Favors an upgrade over the “Big Penguin?” I sort of doubt it.

No, even with James Harden set to take the court versus the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday, the Sixers’ biggest needs are reliable 3 point shooters and defenders who can guard multiple players on the wing. Are there multiple players across the association who fit that bill? Sure, Nicolas Batum, Otto Porter Jr., and Danuel House all fit that bill and have signed very team-friendly contracts in the past, but will any of those players actually wriggle free in time for the March 1st deadline? No, considering all three are currently signed to playoff teams, I sort of doubt it.

Of the players who could actually hit the buyout market by early next week, Gary Harris remains the premier option for the Sixers, as he’s a 6-foot-4, 210-pound shooting guard who can defend either backcourt position and even some three, play high-volume minutes and shoot 3s at a 38.8 percent clip.

There’s a reason Taco Bell doesn’t just put four soft tacos in a Cravings Box: Diversity of taste, texture, and flavor makes a meal better.

Food metaphors aside, Goran Dragic is an upgrade for the Brooklyn Nets. He will help the team out in games where Kyrie Irving is ineligible to play, he can play alongside any player on the roster at either point or shooting guard, and when the playoffs roll around, his 1,535 playoff minutes of postseason action should prove invaluable. But when you consider the Nets’ outside shooting isn’t all that much better than the Philadelphia 76ers, fans in the City of Brotherly Love should breathe a sigh of relief that Steve Nash’s club opted against adding a player like Gary Harris who could help their spacing instead of another guard who will surely relegate Cam Thomas to garbage time duty.