The Sixers’ former pick is coming back to bite them

Flash back to the summer of 2019. The Sixers were fresh off having their hearts ripped out of their chests by Kawhi Leonard. Ben Simmons was an All-NBA player. Those were simpler times.

That summer, the Sixers faced a fork in the road. They had traded for Jimmy Butler and Tobias Harris over the last year, both of whom were set to become unrestricted free agents. In fact, they entered that offseason with only four players under guaranteed contract: Simmons, Joel Embiid, Zhaire Smith (!) and Jonah Bolden (!!). Had they waived their rights to Butler, Harris and the rest of their free agents, they could have boasted more than 59 million dollars in hood space.

Instead of running back the same group that lost in a heartbreaking game 7 to the eventual champion Toronto Raptorsthe Sixers re-signed Harris, but signed and traded Butler to the Miami Heat for Josh Richardson. JJ Redick left to sign with the New Orleans Pelicans, giving the Sixers enough cap space to sign Al Horford to a four-year, $109 million contract. Those were two franchise-defining mistakes that the Sixers are now paying the price for half a decade later.

Ever since Butler left, the Sixers have been on a seemingly never-ending quest for a reliable teammate next to Embiid. When Simmons turned into a potato, they turned him in a package for James Harden. When Harden called out a year and a half later, they sent him to the Los Angeles Clippers for a bunch of expiring contracts, giving them enough cap space to sign Paul George this past offseason. Meanwhile, Tyrese Maxey emerged as a max-caliber player, giving the Sixers a new Big 3 heading into this season.

That decision to part ways with Butler may still irk Embiid half a decade later, according to Vincent Goodwill by Yahoo Sports:

“He wanted the 76ers with all the changes they made — remember, they went and got Caleb Martin. They went and got Kyle Lowry. That means they went and made deals with players who played for Miami Heat. He wanted another player from the Miami Heat. He wanted the 76ers, he said to them, ‘Go get my guy.’ And we know at the end of the season when Jimmy Butler sat out, Pat Riley called him out and said ‘he needs to play more’ and everything else, didn’t get a contract extension. So it felt like there was some degree of openness, at least tangentially, to sign Jimmy Butler.

“I don’t think discussions ever got serious enough to even say, ‘OK, they’re in a deal zone now. This could happen.’ But I don’t think Joel Embiid has been happy, even though he wanted Jimmy Butler back over there. And they couldn’t make it happen I’m not saying he’s screwing up, but I’m saying there’s a lot going on there.”

However, that wasn’t the only decision from the summer of 2019 that came back to bite the Sixers. They made two other critical errors that have also doomed them since then.

Instead of clearing decks and pursuing Cap Space Plan 1.0, the Sixers signed Harris to a five-year, $180 million contract that almost instantly became an albatross. According to Jake Fischer of The Stein Line, Harris “used to serve as a veteran presence who could whisper lessons of professionalism” to Embiid and Simmons, which shouldn’t be ruled out. However, he also spent five years passing up open threes, making layups and repeatedly coming up short when the Sixers needed him to come through the most in the playoffs.

Fortunately, the Sixers finally freed themselves from Harris’ contract this past offseason. However, their second big decision from the summer of 2019 is coming back to bite them now.

When the Sixers signed Horford, the logic was easy to understand, even if his fit with Embiid raised questions. They weakened a leading Eastern Conference rival by taking away their “Embiid stop,” and they gave themselves a theoretically elite backup center whenever Embiid rested or missed time. But pairing him with both Simmons and Embiid turned the offense into a clunky mess, and the Sixers wore him down within a year.

When Daryl Morey took over as the Sixers’ new team president in 2020, he immediately sent Horford to the Oklahoma City Thunder in a package for Danny Green. To offload the remaining three years of Horford’s contract, he had to sweeten the deal with the Sixers’ top-six protected 2025 first-round pick and the rights to Vasilije Micić.

Morey couldn’t possibly have foreseen all the twists and turns the Sixers would endure in the ensuing four years. Hell, heading into this season, that pick was thought to be late in the first round. No harm, no mistake. But with the Sixers off to a disastrous 2-12 start, OKC suddenly appears to be in line for a potential early lottery pick.

If the Sixers had full control of their 2025 first-round pick, they could write this off as a lost season and shut Embiid down to search for ways to get him back to full strength. Maybe they would get lucky in the lottery and add Cooper Flagg or Ace Bailey. But because the Sixers owe that pick to the Thunder, (intentional) tanking is not a realistic possibility for them. They would have to finish with one of the two worst records in the NBA to guarantee they wouldn’t send that pick to OKC.

So now here we are. The Sixers’ franchise cornerstone may be mad that they traded away his favorite teammate five years ago. They spent the last half decade paralyzed by the guy they kept instead. (TOBIAS HARRIS OVER ME?!) And now, with the Sixers possibly on the precipice of a losing season, the Thunder could be the primary beneficiaries of the disaster unfolding before our eyes.

Maybe Friday’s game against Simmons and the Brooklyn Nets will be the catalyst that helps the Sixers turn their season around and start digging out of this self-inflicted mess. But if they continue to sputter, the decisions they made in 2019 will continue to haunt them throughout the year.

Unless otherwise stated, all statistics will via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the glass or Basketball reference. All salary information via Salary Swish and salary frame information via RealGM.