The Philadelphia 76ers and New Orleans Pelicans completed a draft day trade last week that will have far larger ramifications for the remainder of the decade than the Kevin Garnett-Paul Pierce deal that shadowed it.
While the length of time Sam Hinkie has been general manager of the 76ers is still counted by weeks instead of months or years, he made a gusty move by starting from scratch by trading Jrue Holiday to the Pelicans for the draft rights to Nerlens Noel and their 2014 first round pick (top-5 protected). Holiday is on an affordable new contract worth anyhere between $41 million and $46 million depending on the incentives and became an All-Star at the age of 22 last season.
Trading away your best asset to start from scratch was a clear tell that the 76ers intend on being very bad next season, the most important season to be top-3 pick bad since 2007 and the most important to be top-6 bad since 2003.
The 76ers are clearly stockpiling young players and to have two lottery picks in 2013 followed by their own high pick in 2014 and the Pelicans’ first rounder will give Hinkie an excellent foundation to move from the NBA’s treacherous mediocrity treadmill.
The 76ers traded for Andrew Bynum last offseason with the hope that he and Holiday would form the type of All-Star tandem that can take a team deep into the playoffs. Bynum’s injury cost Tony DiLeo his job and prevented Philadelphia from evaluating whether it would have worked.
Faced the opportunity of moving forward with Holiday and someone like Steven Adams at No 11, or Noel and Michael Carter-Williams, the risk of doing nothing instantly appears higher.
Beyond the asset of Noel and the first round pick in 2014, which has an excellent chance of being in the top-20, the biggest indirect benefit is in assuring that the 76ers have a high pick. Outright tanking is a cynical way to build a roster, but the NBA system incentivizes teams to attempt this strategy for it to not be followed. The 76ers have excellent odds of having one of the three or four worst records in 13-14, which will put Aaron Gordon, Jabari Parker, Julius Randle, Marcus Smart and Andrew Harrison within reach if they don’t win the Andrew Wiggins sweepstakes.
Grade for 76ers: A
If the aforementioned section was a complete endorsement of taking a slow, steady, top of the draft approach to building a roster, the Pelicans have ejected themselves from that philosophy wholesale.
The value of Holiday to the Pelicans very well could become higher than that of Noel and that pick next season in aggregate. Holiday’s assist percentage and usage rate increased substantially this season and he has the physical size and athleticism to take another big step, but he has yet to truly look like a transcendent talent.
Noel, meanwhile, would give the Pelicans the type of interior defensive presence with Anthony Davis to make the team truly special. Noel would miss at least part of the season and the losses would continue to mount, but he and Davis would complement each other on the offensive end in the long-term. Drafting the consensus top overall pick if not for the torn ACL at No. 6 is the type of good fortune that allowed the Detroit Pistons to luck into Andre Drummond last June at No. 8.
Just as the 76ers benefit by assuring themselves a competitively high pick by not having a competitive season, the Pelicans have basically taken being bad to draft a transcendent finishing piece off the table. The Pelicans are entering a win-now mode when their best opportunity to build a sustainable winner around Davis would be to add one of those very special players in 2014.
The equivalent situation for the Pelicans would have been for the Oklahoma Thunder to trade the draft rights to Russell Westbrook for a then-25-year-old Devin Harris in 2008 while also taking James Harden off the board the following season.
The Pelicans acquired a very good player in Holiday, but I strongly discount the effectiveness of the philosophy.
Grade for Pelicans: C
