The 76ers seem miserable.
Enter Alec Burks and Glenn Robinson III to provide a jolt before the NBA trade deadline closes.
Shams Charania of The Athletic:
Warriors are trading Alec Burks and Glenn Robinson III to Philadelphia, league sources tell @TheAthleticNBA @Stadium.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) February 6, 2020
Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN:
Sixers are sending Warriors a 2020 second-round via Dallas, and a 2021 second-round pick via Denver, and 2022 second-round pick via Toronto, league source tells ESPN. https://t.co/Yz4gqhUoj5
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) February 6, 2020
Sixers are working on additional trades to create roster spots needed to add Burks and Robinson III, league sources tell ESPN. Without a deal before the 3 PM ET deadline, Philadelphia will have to waive two players.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) February 6, 2020
None of those picks look great. The further out, the more variance, though.
Burks (16 points per game) and Robinson (13 points per game) have scoring averages that would have historically fetched far greater return. This says something about how much smarter the NBA has gotten. Burks and Robinson are posting inflated numbers because they were pressed into outsized roles on the ravaged Warriors.
Those two should help Philadelphia, though. The 76ers went cheap on their bench last summer, and it shows.
Burks (shooting guard, point guard and small forward) and Robinson (small forward and power forward) can play across the positional spectrum. So, several Philadelphia reserves – Furkan Korkmaz, James Ennis, Raul Neto and Mike Scott – could get at least partially supplanted. Burks’ and Robinson’s 3-point should will be particularly welcome.
Burks and Robinson could be rentals. They’re both on one-year minimum-salary contracts. So, Philadelphia would have to use another exception or open cap space to re-sign them for greater than 120% of a minimum salary. The 76ers are already looking at a huge payroll next season. If Burks and Robinson play well, they could be too expensive for Philadelphia to re-sign, though it’s possible one gets the mid-level exception. If Burks and Robinson play poorly, the 76ers will likely prefer to move on.
The Warriors get closer to dodging the luxury tax. With their massive revenue, they probably wouldn’t freak out over a small tax payment. But not paying the tax this season would take them out of the repeater tax next season, when the payroll could be large enough to make a HUGE difference between the repeater and non-repeater rate.
Golden State is down to just 11 players. Depending who else is moved, ducking the tax could force the Warriors to spend some of the remainder of the season with a shorthanded roster. They probably deem that acceptable. They aren’t winning significantly this season, anyway. In fact, a shorthanded roster would improve Golden State’s draft position.