Philadelphia 76ers: J.J. Redick tried to recruit Wesley Matthews in 2019

Move over Woj, for your coworker, ex-Philadelphia 76ers shooting guard J.J. Redick, just dropped one heck of a bomb on the NBA landscape that will surely reciprocate for days, weeks, and even months to come.

The bomb in question, if you somehow missed it, came on ESPN’s First Take on Tuesday morning, when Redick called out 2019 first overall pick Zion Williamson for being a bad teammate with one foot out of the door with the New Orleans Pelicans. Redick blasted “Zionos” for having yet to talk to his new teammate, CJ McCollum, for his unwillingness to work with the Pelicans, and for his detached attitude when the duo were teammates from 2019-20.

When you consider Redick’s typically composed nature, where he hints at insider information instead of looking dead into a camera as he monologues for a minute straight, this left many a fan, player, and media member wondering what was going on with the former Duke Blue Devil – Williamson, not Redick – and his current franchise.

But tucked away in J.J. Redick’s Zion Williamson-centric story was a little anecdote about how he reached out to Marco Belinelli, Ersan Ilyasova, and Wesley Matthews about joining the Philadelphia 76ers, and boy, oh boy, is it interesting.

J.J. Redick almost landed the Philadelphia 76ers a solid guard in 2019.

In 2018, the additions of Marco Belinelli and Ersan Ilyasova were a godsend.

The Philadelphia 76ers were surprisingly good, Joel Embiid was already an All-Star, and outside of J.J. Redick and Amir Johnson, the team vastly underspent in free agency on viable playoff-caliber rotation players. With the team sitting pretty at 29-25 on February 12th, the Sixers turned their attention to the buyout market to give Brett Brown some additional firepower heading into the postseason, and he secured not one but two solid options in former Sixer Ersan Ilyasova and former Spur Marco Belinelli, both of whom started out the season on the Atlanta Hawks.

That duo went on to average 13.6 and 10.8 points respectively during the regular season, and both averaged 20-plus minutes of action as part of the playoff rotation. Without Belinelli’s two 20-plus point performances against the Miami Heat specifically, the Sixers might not have gotten into the second round of the playoffs, and when he was allowed to walk in free agency, it left more than a few Philly fans with hurt feelings.

Fast forward to February of 2019, and the Sixers again were likely playoff-bound, only this time, the team had made not one but two huge trades to acquire Jimmy Butler and Tobias Harris from the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Los Angeles Clippers. Fans were excited, the team seemed stoked, and the media, in hindsight, was a bit too quick to call Philly’s starting five the East’s new Big 4. Did the Sixers desperately need another player? No, probably not, but hey, Redick put on his recruiter hat and tried to convince Wesley Matthews, who was recently released by the New York Knicks, to take his talents to the City of Brotherly Love.

On paper, Matthews would have been a solid addition. He was averaging 13.1 points in 29.8 minutes of action for the Dallas Mavericks before being waived by the Knicks and had a reputation for being a solid 3-and-D guard who could cover either backcourt position. With Markelle Fultz and James Ennis III gone, Redick a notoriously bad defender, and Zhaire Smith nowhere near ready to return to the court, Mathews could have been an asset against teams like the Boston Celtics or Toronto Raptors come playoff time.

But alas, it just wasn’t meant to be. Matthews opted to sign with the Victor Oladipo/Domantas Sabonis Indiana Pacers, where he averaged 10.9 points in 31.5 minutes of action, and the Sixers eventually waived Justin Patton to free up a roster spot for a late-season addition of their own, center Greg Monroe.

… yeah, that name still sends shivers down my spine too.

Had J.J. Redick come through in 2019, maybe things would have been different. Maybe the Toronto Raptors series wouldn’t have come down to that brutal quadruple doink, and the Philadelphia 76ers would have cruised into the Eastern Conference Finals for a series against a Milwaukee Bucks team they were quite literally built to beat. But alas, it just wasn’t meant to be. Heck, for all we know, maybe Redick’s words worked, and it was Elton Brand, not Wesley Matthews, who shot down a potential pairing. Either way, it’s safe to say the Sixers are in a much better place right now than the New Orleans Pelicans, as they just cashed a holding out superstar for a top-15 player and can finally look towards the future.