NBA Reports: Bucks and 76ers are in Locked Head in seeking fresh first-round draft Capital in advance of the Trade Deadline
The Bucks and 76ers are planning for the future.
The Philadelphia 76ers and the Milwaukee Bucks are both teetering on uncertainty as the NBA trade deadline fast approaches later this week. The 76ers recently lost superstar big man Joel Embiid for an indefinite amount of time due to a torn meniscus, while the Bucks are still seeing their defensive struggles materialize despite the recent coaching change they made from Adrian Griffin to Doc Rivers.
Now, it seems that both teams plan to be active at the trade deadline, which falls on Thursday afternoon, although it may not be in the way that some fans expect.
“The Bucks, along with the Sixers, are among several teams that have contacted the likes of New Orleans and Oklahoma City, sources said, attempting to trade future first-round pick swaps or packages of second-round picks to acquire extra first-round selections,” reported Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports.
Upon closer inspection, it would probably make some sense that both the 76ers and the Bucks would be interested in accumulating draft capital for the future, especially with a team like the Thunder, who have a treasure trove of first-round picks in the next few years. Both Philadelphia and Milwaukee have sacrificed their future immensely in order to build what they hope are contending teams in the present, but as championship aspirations look less and less likely for both organizations, it checks out that they would also do some investing in the future.
The Bucks and 76ers will next face one another on February 25 at 1:00 PM ET from Philadelphia.
Further Reading:
Report: Sixers targeting Buddy Hield, Bojan Bogdanovic
With two days until the NBA Trade Deadline, the Philadelphia 76ers reportedly have a few targets in their sights.
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The 2024 NBA Trade Deadline is just two days away now, and with the evolving situation surrounding Joel Embiid’s injury, Philadelphia 76ers fans are left waiting to see if the front office plans to shake things up before Thursday afternoon’s cutoff.
In a recent article by Yahoo Sports’ Jake Fischer, it is reported that not only are the Sixers exploring their options with a number of teams, but also that they have a few targets in mind. One of those targets is Indiana Pacers guard Buddy Hield.
Hield’s $18.5 million dollar salary would be a match for several of the Sixers’ expiring contracts, and his expiring deal wouldn’t add future financial burden onto Philadelphia’s clean cap sheet for this offseason, as the Sixers have left rival teams with the impression they are still wary of taking back longterm salary at this juncture.
Striking that balance between adding some help now while preserving the flexible cap space the Sixers are set to have in the next offseason seems to be a priority for the team.
Hield is currently averaging 12.0 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.6 assists in 25.7 minutes per game with the Pacers. Something that he does specifically (that the Sixers currently desperately need) is let it fly from long range with 6.9 attempts per outing, sinking 38.2 percent of triples.
Fischer moves on to the next potential target, Detroit Pistons guard Bojan Bogdanovic.
Another target for the Sixers is Pistons guard Bojan Bogdanović, sources said, who is on the books for $20 million this season, but has just $2 million guaranteed for 2024-25.
Our own Harrison Grimm recently broke down in-depth whether the Sixers should take a look at Bogdanovic, including analyzing the guard’s strengths, his potential fit with the Sixers, his team-friendly contract situation, and more. You can read that entire piece here.
The other interesting piece of the puzzle in dealing with the Pistons is their recently reported interest in bringing back Tobias Harris, who played in Detroit from 2016-2018. Fischer mentions this but brings up some potential roadblocks in either team involved not being able to give up their respective player.
Detroit has long shown an interest in a reunion with Tobias Harris, league sources told Yahoo Sports, but in any deal where the Sixers bring back Bogdanović, it would seem Philadelphia doesn’t want to part with Harris.
Alas, Detroit officials haven’t indicated to rival teams they’ll even be willing to move Bogdanović. Veteran shooting bigs Mike Muscala and Danilo Gallinari do appear to be likely trade candidates for the Pistons.
So that one might be a bit of a difficult one to pull off if neither team seems completely willing to move the specific pieces involved, but you never know!
That being said, with the deadline fast approaching, time is running short and Sixers fans are on the edge of their seat to see if Daryl Morey and the Sixers’ front office decide to make a move. These rumored targets seem to imply that the Sixers are targeting a shooter, which isn’t exactly surprising given how the offense has struggled without Embiid in the lineup and how few threes Philadelphia currently attempts (31.4 per game, 26th in the league) sinking just 11.4 per game (27th in the league).
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