Sixers’ Trade in KJ Martin is about cutting costs … and who knows what else

That’s it. They may have finally done it. All of us are witnesses. After half a season full of waypoints at ever -increasing heights, Sixers will fight to reach much higher. Ladies and gentlemen, please sit until the clown car has come to a full and complete stop. We have arrived in Peak 2025 Sixers.

Daryl Morey’s decision to act 24-year-old Vinge Kj Martin is a humiliating trait, both for the team president himself and for the fans he sold this bill of a season. There is not a better encapsulation of Morey nothing good, very bad year than the short and wonderful life in Martin as an alleged Sixers trading asset.

When the team president signed Martin for a two-year-old, $ 16 million contract during the summer, the move was reported as Morey on his most galaxy brain. No one thought Martin was worth $ 8 million a year – half of it guaranteed – but that was the genius of it. Because Sixers had his bird rights and thus were allowed by the NBA rules to exceed the salary of the salary to sign him, they essentially wrote themselves a free money coupon, which they could later pay into a trade for a player with equal or greater salary.

Remember, NBA leaders are as much central bankers as they are talent evaluers, and Morey knows how to get the cash machine to go to BRRRRR better than most. Therefore, Martin’s trade acts as such a rejection.

It worked kind of as it should, I assume. Sixers attached a few drafts of the second round to Martin’s contract to convince the stamps to take it off their hands. Apart from, instead of getting a player in turn who would upgrade their rotation to the stretch drive, Morey and Sixers got nothing. They sent Martin and choose to the stamps. The stamps sent nothing to Sixers except the sweet satisfaction of avoiding luxury tax. All this, according to the study’s Keith Pompey.

The decision itself is probably not worth a federal case. While Martin is a fun player who has shown some improvements as a shooter and post-therapist, he has been sidelined since December 23 with a foot injury and had a non-guaranteed salary for next season. He is a fringe rotation player on a team that has plenty of more urgent worries. The decision to act is unlikely to be the thing that costs Sixers a title, whether it is now or in the future.

But the optics are certainly not good. While the Sixers did not exactly go away with nothing for their trouble deal leaves them with a trade exception of $ 8 million they can spend at some point within the next year to add wages without throwing anyone-the move clean a cost-saving one .

»Read more: David Murphy: Sixers do non-brainer trade in Caleb Martin for Quentin Grimes … but doesn’t call it a sale yet

Combined with their trade in Caleb Martin to Mavericks on Tuesday, Sixers could stand to win nearly $ 40 million between their savings on wages and luxury tax payments, and their reception of a league distribution left for non-tax paying teams. After a summer when Morey got Carte Blanche to maximize his payroll while reluring his list, it certainly seems that Josh Harris and the ownership group have fought away the wheel of Ol ‘Ice Cream Truck.

The big question is whether Sixers’ shift to cost -saving state signalizes something about Morey’s future at the helm of the franchise. Bill Simmons recently floated the prospect of former Golden State Warrior’s general manager Bob Myers replacing Morey, Podcast -Impresario said he has heard “Buzz” about the opportunity.

In Tyrese Maxey and Jared McCain, Sixers have a few young backcourt building blocks that can chuck it with the best of them. It would make sense if Sixers started looking for a director with a track record of organic program building instead of continuing the funded star button that has been Morey’s characteristic as a performer.

»Read more: Caleb Martin was traded to Dallas – and he didn’t even need to leave the building

On the flip side, Morey is the one who drafted both Maxey and McCain. He is also the one who signed Guerschon Yabusele and Kelly Oubre Jr. To negotiate contracts and then saw them bloom in legitimate assets. The irony of the Sixers season is that in many ways it was a successful culmination of what Morey began to do when he took the rudder of an under -testing team that included all Horford and Ben Simmons by 2020 for years. For years, the team struggled to build a deep and complementary supportive crew around Joel Emphid. Morey pretty much managed to do it this year. His two stars have been the problem.

Between now and Thursday’s arrival of the trading deadline, we may get a clearer picture of who makes the calls and what the team’s mandate is.