The Memphis Grizzlies are finally giving up. It was a good run.
Related: 8 things: Sixers comeback to beat Spurs
The Grit & Grind era, which produced a good number of teams that were good enough to be the team "nobody wants to play in the playoffs" but not good enough to "win anything," has run its course, and the team has reportedly to decided to look into trading its two best veteran players, Marc Gasol and Mike Conley.
Now that the Sixers are good, any time any good player is available we're going to spend some time thinking about whether they'd be a good fit in Philadelphia.
From a fit standpoint alone, Marc Gasol is not a fit with the Sixers and Mike Conley is. Conley is a point guard who plays solid defense, can hit open threes and create on the perimeter. He's really a perfect point guard to pair with Simmons and Embiid, because he isn't particularly ball dominant, and did share a lot of the offense creation duties in Memphis with Gasol.
Playing with an actual point guard would free Simmons up to be more of the player he's been for the last couple of months; a guy who will push the ball on the break and either get to the rim himself or create for someone else, but if there's nothing there, have the ability to post up, set screens, and put himself and teammates in different positions to attack the defense. As long as he's not going to be a perimeter threat, his effectiveness as a primary initiator from the wing or the point in the half court will be limited.
Adding a point guard wouldn't prevent Simmons from being great, it would allow him to be great.
I asked on Twitter for some trade ideas that would net the Sixers Mike Conley. We got some creative ones.
I will just talk about the trade submissions we got from Twitter, but my position is pretty simple; I'd love to have Mike Conley instead of Jimmy Butler, and I don't really want both. Theoretically it'd be nice to have both players, but the contract that Conley already has, and the one that Butler would demand—given their age and injury concerns—is too much of a risk for me. I've been open about the fact that I'm not in favor of giving Butler a five-year contract for a lot of reasons. When it comes down to it, I'd support a trade in which we'd end up with three years of Mike Conley instead of four or five years of Jimmy Butler.
12 Player Explosion
Just because we all know 12-player deals happen so often. Guessing Sixers would probably send some draft compensation to Memphis as well. pic.twitter.com/RMfOrRHKWt
— Luke LIIons (@ljlyons) January 23, 2019Because this was incomplete, I'll say that the the Sixers also send the 2021 Miami Heat first round pick that they own to Memphis.
This trade would make the Sixers the best team in the the Eastern Conference once they've jelled. I've already noted how Conley fits with the Sixers, adding Josh Richardson, a young wing who can shoot and defend on a very fair contract would be a bit of coup.
We could absolutely find minutes for JaMychal Green on the Sixers. More rotation players! I'll take it.
At the end of the day, I'm not sure this trade makes much sense for the Grizzlies. They do pick up a pretty decent draft pick from the Sixers, and whatever Markelle Fultz is, but get off of Conley and Gasol's money just to add Hassan Whiteside.
The Return Of Marco Belinelli
Belinelli & Patty Mills baby! pic.twitter.com/3plzdkocqk
— J_Stat (@J_Stat) January 23, 2019Who approved this? We're not getting Conley, and instead getting Belinelli, one of my least favorite Sixers of all time? Absolutely not. We beat that loser last night.
No.
All-In This Season
Plus Miami 2021 1st pic.twitter.com/YTt56msZbj
— Brian Michael Jacobs (@BrianJacobsPFO) January 23, 2019This is one that seems realistic from a Memphis perspective, getting a flyer on Fultz and the 2021 Heat pick, while also getting off of Conley's contract is reasonable.
As I mentioned, I don't think keeping both Conley and Butler is a wise decision past this season. There's no reason why they couldn't give this a run this year, and decide not to re-sign Butler, or re-sign Butler and trade Conley in the off-season.
It's fair to say that even though they wouldn't have very long to put it all together, the Sixers would end up as the real favorites in the Eastern Conference.
The one concern is that even though neither Wilson Chandler nor Mike Muscala is winning anyone a championship, we're going from having two rotation players to one, and you might have noticed, we don't have a lot of rotation players.
