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Thursday, April 2, 2009

Sixers Need to Trade a Star

There is only a matter of time before the obvious comes to light. The 76ers, although a young, perhaps up and coming, playoff team, have a dilemma on their roster. Not only do they not have a guy to play the point after this season, no sharpshooters, a potential bust in Elton Brand, but more intriguing they have two starters at small forward. Andre Iguodala was signed to a huge deal, paying him upwards of around 80 million dollars over the next six years. It was a great deal for Andre, but it proved to show little insight on the part of the Sixers. They drafted a guy by the name of Thaddeus Young back in 2007, who looks as if he is going to be a real player, at the three. Now what do they do? Neither can play the two guard, and even though they threw Young in at power forward, that is not his spot, that belongs to Marreese Speights.

It would appear that T.Young is hurt right now but he will be forever without of a position. His average of 15.2 points per game can be picked up by other guys, but his skill without the ball and his defense will be missed just as much. But what it can get the team is what it needs to get passed the first round of the playoffs. Thaddeus Young has absolutely the highest trade value on the team. He can get you a player like Michael Redd, maybe not straight up due to the salary cap, but Young would be the integral piece in any deal if you throw in Samuel Dalembert. I personally would rather the Sixers trade Iggy, but with the new contract is unlikely to be as desirable as a 20 year old kid who everyone knows can play and has nothing but upside at this point in his career.
Right now the Sixers have holes. And those holes are only going to get bigger when Andre Miller leaves town. There is no sense trying to force square pegs in when you can trade for round ones. The team on the whole is young enough to grow, and by adding a veteran that will clearly fill a need and the whole dynamic of the team changes. Maybe Elton Brand get good again, maybe the Sixers find a better shooting guard than Willie Green, and maybe the whole team goes to hell and Philly makes back into the lottery. Either way, Young is going to be a wasted talent, even more so if he stays in Philadelphia. Get what you can to improve the team, before his boat runs out of steam.

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