Some Brief Comments on the Sixers and the Trade Deadline

Some Brief Comments on the Sixers and the Trade Deadline

In the weeks leading up to the 2010 NBA trade deadline, speculation was abound as to whether or not the Sixers would make a major move. Names like Iguodala, Brand and Dalembert floated around in various trade scenarios involving various teams. When all was said and done, the Sixers made only one small time trade for a couple players too trivial for me to even bother remembering their names. The question is, were the Sixers right to stand pat?

Two particular trades were being reported at length by the main stream and local Philly media. The first involved the acquisition of Amare Stoudemire from the Suns, and the other the acquisition of Tracy McGrady from the Rockets. In both deals, Iguodala was the highly sought after commodity. Brand was offered to both teams to no avail. In fact, Dalembert was preferred over Brand by both teams.

McGrady would go on to be traded away to the Knicks, while Stoudemire remained with the Suns. The Sixers for their part are now making yet another late season run at a playoff spot. Had either trade gone down, it would have done little to improve or worsen the Sixers chances of making the playoffs this season.

The impact of such deals were believed to be coming AFTER the 2009/2010 season ended, when the deals of McGrady and Stoudemire were set to expire. Many fans wrongly believed that the Sixers would be able to make a run at a big name free agent like Lebron, Wade or Bosh. This assumption was flat out incorrect. Even if the Sixers had acquired McGrady for Iguodala and Dalembert, they would have had less than 8 million to spend on free agents this offseason, and perhaps none at all. Without Iguodala and Dalembert the Sixers would still have roughly 50 million in payroll. The NBA will reportedly drop the salary cap for 2010/2011 to less than 54 million and perhaps as low as 50 million. And because the Sixers would probably be under the cap, they'd be ineligible to use the mid-level exemption.

It's quite possible that the Sixers would have been able to make a move on a free agent after the 2010/2011 season ended, but by that time they would have been able to do it even without trading Iguodala, due to the expiring contracts of Dalembert, Kapono and Green.

In short, trading Iguodala for an expiring contract would have done nothing to improve the Sixers now, next year, or even further down the line. Stefanski deserves heat for a lot of things, but not for holding on the Iguodala this season.