REPORT: SIXERS NET SECOND-ROUNDER FROM WARRIORS IN BUDDY HIELD SIGN-AND-TRADE
Update, July 4, 2;20 p.m.: The sign-and-trade is reportedly complete, per Shams Charania of The Athletic. Buddy Hield is headed to the Golden State Warriors and the Sixers will receive a 2031 second-rounder (from Dallas via the Klay Thompson sign-and-trade).
The Sixers are still basking in the afterglow of having signed nine-time All-Star Paul George. But doing so — offering the 34-year-old small forward out of Fresno, a $212M four-year contract — has left Philadelphia in a bit of a cap crunch. Daryl Morey, Elton Brand and co. were able to land Tyrese Maxey on a $204M extension of his own, one that the first-time All-Star truly earned.
But the reason the team was able to sign PG in the first place was because they didn’t take on any long-term salary either last Fall in that James Harden trade or around the 2024 NBA Trade Deadline. They wanted maximum contracts and maximum optionality and that certainly paid off in a big way.
Our Paul Hudrick wrote about the guts it took Daryl Morey to thread the needle there, doing what it took to help the team last season, without costing themselves the chance to pursue bigger fish last week.
The “needle-thread” move they did make was when they acquired former Kings and Pacers guard Buddy Hield — on an expiring salary — last February. Hield had his moments in a Sixers’ uni, but the former Sooner didn’t quite deliver what coach Nick Nurse was hoping for.
And now it appears as if the Bahamas native may be departing for the Golden State Warriors.
Per Shams Charania of The Athletic and FanDuelTV:
We’ve yet to get more details, but you can be sure that Philadelphia would love to recoup any type of asset, even if it were merely a future second-round pick or two, a trade exception, or some matrix 4-D chess cap flexibility. The Warriors’ possess a pair of future seconds from the Atlanta Hawks, and might need an assist from the 76ers on landing Buddy without landing themselves in cap-crunch hell. Maybe there’s a win-win maneuver here to be made.
We won’t expect miracles here but anything like that would be better than letting Hield, acquired for a couple of second-round picks (while also parting ways with Marcus Morris, Sr. and Furkan Korkmaz in a three-team trade included the Indiana Pacers and San Antonio Spurs) walk for nothing return.
The Golden State Warriors recently bid fairwell to future Hall of Famer Klay Thompson, a four-time champion with The Dubs, so apparently their front office wants to bolster the shooters that Steph Curry and Draymond Green can work with. There are rumors the Warriors want to make a big trade push for Utah Jazz All-Star Lauri Markkanen as well; but you know how frugal Danny Ainge can be.
Earlier on Tuesday, current Warrior Green shared his thoughts on the Warriors’ failed push to land George that fell apart when the Clippers didn’t want to play ball with Golden State, a Conference rival. That was just one of the things Daryl Morey and the Sixers needed to go their way.
Philly still has a few first-rounders (up to five, plus swaps as our Bryan Toporek explained) and some remaining cap space to work with.
There was recently a report from Hoops Hype’s Michael Scotto that Philadelphia could be interested in acquiring Brooklyn Nets’ wing Dorian Finney-Smith although nothing there is imminent. Scotto added that the Sixers have shown interest in former Warriors’ Lester Quinones, currently a free agent as well.
So we’ll see what if anything they might receive in exchange for Hield. The Sixers have already had sad goodbyes with De’Anthony Melton (a Warrior) and Nico Batum (a Clipper once again). Now it sounds as if Buddy will be bound for the Warriors as well, remaining teammates with Melt.