Mock trade has Sixers sending Furkan Korkmaz to Spurs in a deal
The Philadelphia 76ers are a team with aspirations of winning a championship as they have a star duo in Joel Embiid and James Harden and want to be able to take advantage of the opportunity in front of them.
Therefore, there might be some players available on the buyout market which the Sixers could look into in order to improve their roster. Obviously, the buyout market won’t heat up until sometime around the Feb. 9 trade deadline, but it can’t hurt to position themselves for that day.
In order to save some money, Bleacher Report has proposed a mock trade that would send Furkan Korkmaz to the San Antonio Spurs:
The fake trade proposal
Philadelphia 76ers Receive: Indiana’s 2023 second-round pick (protected for selections Nos. 31-55)
San Antonio Spurs Receive: Furkan Korkmaz, 2023 second-round pick (most favorable from Atlanta, Brooklyn or Charlotte)
B/R on why the Sixers do this deal
Bookkeeping flexibility is more the Sixers’ speed. They have an open roster spot already, because they waived Charles Bassey and Isaiah Joe, for reasons that weren’t and still aren’t entirely clear. This might come in handy on the buyout market. But Philly is also a little over $1.1 million above the luxury-tax line. This trade gets the organization comfortably beneath it.
Fans should not be rooting for billionaires to save money. In this case, though, there’s additional merit to the move. Offloading Korkmaz dredges up a second roster spot and puts the Sixers more than $3.8 million under the tax line, enabling them to be more aggressive as the buyout market develops.
Any ol’ second-round pick might not be enough for the Spurs to swallow the extra year and $5.4 million on Korkmaz’s contract. This isn’t any ol’ second-round pick. The incoming selection is slated to be No. 32 at this writing. A fringe-first to rent out such a small amount of payroll is fair compensation.
Analyzing the deal from a Sixers standpoint
This trade would make sense in a few different ways. Not only would it free up more money for the buyout market, but it would also relieve the logjam off Philadelphia’s bench. The Sixers have a lot of guys who play similar positions in their bench unit in the form of Korkmaz, Danuel House Jr., and Matisse Thybulle. Moving Korkmaz would free that up a bit and provide clarity to the reserves.
More Sixers news and notes
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Story originally appeared on Sixers Wire
Source: Yahoo Sports
