The Sixers on Thursday afternoon made a deal for a veteran guard as they seek to improve their chances of winning the Eastern Conference.
The team agreed to acquire the Thunder’s George Hill, a source confirmed to NBC Sports Philadelphia.
Here are the terms of the three-team deal, which the Sixers officially announced Thursday night.
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- Sixers receive: George Hill from Thunder; Ignas Brazdeikis from Knicks
- Thunder receive: Tony Bradley from Sixers; Sixers' 2025 and 2026 second-round picks; Austin Rivers from Knicks
- Knicks receive: Terrance Ferguson and Vincent Poirier from Sixers; Sixers' 2021 second-round pick; Heat's 2024 second-round pick (protected Nos. 31-55); rights to Emir Preldzic
Shams Charania of The Athletic first reported the Sixers' trade for Hill.
Ferguson and Poirier have been outside of the Sixers’ rotation all season.
The 23-year-old Bradley has been valuable recently as the team’s starting center with Joel Embiid out because of a left knee bone bruise. Embiid gave a final shout-out on Twitter to Bradley, who was excellent Tuesday night in the Sixers' win over the Warriors, recording 18 points on 8-for-8 shooting and 11 rebounds.
Brazdeikis, a 22-year-old forward, doesn’t project to be a part of the rotation. The Michigan product has spent most of his professional career in the G League and has a $1.8 million club option for next season.
Hill has a $9.6 million salary for this year and approximately $10 million for the 2021-22 season, with $1.3 million guaranteed.
NBA
The 34-year-old played 14 games for Oklahoma City this season, averaging 11.8 points and 3.1 assists. He’s been sidelined since late January after having right thumb surgery and the timeline for his return is unclear.
Hill led the NBA in three-point percentage last season (46.0 percent) as Milwaukee’s backup point guard. There’s little question that, when healthy, he’s capable of making a positive impact in the playoffs.
The Sixers’ bench has been dependent on Shake Milton, Matisse Thybulle and Furkan Korkmaz, all of whom are 24 years old or younger. Head coach Doc Rivers expressed earlier in the season that his team’s second unit lacked a true point guard, and that half-court offense was sometimes a struggle as a result.
“They’re all scorers in that unit," Rivers said on Feb. 13. “Tyrese (Maxey) is really a scorer, Tobias (Harris), who we use (with the second unit), is a scorer. Shake’s a scorer, Furkan’s a scorer. We need somebody to pass to each other. When they ball well, they have artificial ball movement that leads to good ball movement. And so we have to get them back to doing that more.”
The Sixers as a team have scored only 95.2 points per 100 half-court plays, per Cleaning the Glass, which ranks 20th in the NBA.
Another strength of Hill’s is that he doesn’t turn the ball over much. He’s been better than league average in turnover percentage in 11 of his 13 NBA seasons, according to Cleaning the Glass. The Sixers rank 26th in turnover percentage.
The 31-13 Sixers, who will play the shorthanded Lakers Thursday night, lead the East with 28 regular-season games left. They’ll hope Hill can integrate smoothly into their rotation and help them in the postseason.