NBA rumors: Nets’ Spencer Dinwiddie could see a Sixers NBA Draft mega-trade with Warriors
Lost amid the ongoing NBA playoffs, an otherwise all-important basketball event took place: the NBA Draft Lottery.
Thursday night’s selections saw the No. 1 overall pick go to the Minnesota Timberwolves, and the No. 2 overall pick go to the Golden State Warriors.
It’s still bizarre to see the Warriors landing in the lottery two years after their dominant, years-long championship run, but injuries and intentional jockeying put Golden State in prime drafting position.
And they might not even use the pick.
That’s a view shared by a number of NBA analysts, and on Thursday night a current NBA player chimed in to agree: the Brooklyn Nets’ Spencer Dinwiddie.
Dinwiddie sees the Warriors taking a different approach to the No. 2 pick:
?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 21, 2020GSW trading the #2 pick to Philly?
— Spencer Dinwiddie (@SDinwiddie_25)
GSW trading the #2 pick to Philly?
— Spencer Dinwiddie (@SDinwiddie_25) August 21, 2020
Excuse me, what now?
Trading into a top-2 pick isn’t exactly a casual Draft night swap; that’s pricey real estate. So Dinwiddie is clearly implying some sort of mega-deal, one that helps the Warriors return to NBA Finals contention, and pushes the Sixers towards a clearer future vision.
The Warriors have been linked to having interest in a Ben Simmons move since back in January.
NBC Sports Bay Area’s Josh Schrock floated the idea of a Joel Embiid trade last month.
Some, including Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck and ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, have intimated that the Simmons-Embiid combo may be over sooner rather than later.
And now, with the Sixers teetering on the edge of a first-round exit – albeit without a health Simmons – the viability of the currently-constructed roster is being questioned everywhere.
Does a trade involving Embiid or Simmons and the No. 2 pick make any sense?
For Golden State, obviously. The Warriors aren’t really in the business of drafting and developing right now. They have two of the best shooters in the history of basketball, still in their respective primes, along with some key role players, and they also have a front office committed to winning more titles before the window closes. Which means the No. 2 pick is likely extremely movable.
But for the Sixers, the return package would have to be substantial – like, extremely substantial, almost prohibitively so for the Warriors – to make the ultimate shake-it-up move and trade either Embiid or Simmons.
The two All-Stars are supposed to be franchise cornerstones for their entire careers. They’re both still young, they’re both still fantastic players, and I still think they can work together. Giving up on the experiment would need to see an insane return of assets. And, frankly, the 2020 Draft doesn’t seem good enough at the top to justify the trade.
I won’t say it’s impossible, because this Sixers team needs huge changes and that would certainly be a huge change. But I can’t imagine we’ll Dinwiddie’s hypothetical come to fruition.
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