Getty Montrezl Harrell #5 of the Philadelphia 76ers.
The Philadelphia 76ers are in a familiar place. Once again, the team sits in the thick of the Eastern Conference playoff race, just a game behind the Cleveland Cavaliers for fourth place. Equally familiar is the form of superstar Joel Embiid, though his monstrous December is strong, even for his standards.
But the Sixers are also in an uncomfortably familiar spot at backup center. For the umpteenth year in a row, Philadelphia has a real crisis at the five when the spot isn’t occupied by Embiid. According to Dave Early of Liberty Ballers, it’s a recurring problem for the Sixers.
“But they don’t want to lean in there for some reason and they don’t trust Reed and the guy they do love to play hasn’t helped enough to justify his consistent role…for the third year in a row,” Early wrote.
To solve the problem, Early proposed a trade that sees the Sixers link up with a familiar face: Bulls big Andre Drummond. Here’s what Early suggested:
Sixers Receive: Alex Caruso, Andre Drummond
Bulls Receive: Montrezl Harrell, Furkan Korkmaz, Matisse Thybulle
In Drummond and Caruso, the Sixers net two players who could ratchet up Philadelphia’s defense right away.
Sixers Could Use Defensive Upgrades in Drummond and Caruso
Contrary to what the Sixers have demonstrated this season, a team on defense is indeed allowed (even encouraged) to grab a rebound from time to time. Thus far, though, Philadelphia has one of the league’s worst defensive rebound rates, currently ranked 23rd in the league.
Fortunately, the Sixers haven’t been crushed by those second-chance points, coughing up just 13.4 such points per game, tenth-best in the league. But the team is perilously close to the 17th-best Portland Trailblazers (13.9), suggesting that the team’s poor defensive rebounding will haunt them eventually.
Just a friendly reminder that Jalen Brunson made Alex Caruso touch earth 9 days ago
Enter Drummond. Since entering the league in 2012, Drummond has been one of the league’s best rebounders. His 33% defensive rebound rate this season is tops in the league for centers, and he’s hovered around 30% every season since 2015. By comparison, Montrezl Harrell is corralling just 12% of the Sixers’ defensive rebounds.
And Alex Caruso would provide some defensive chops to the guard position. His 3.2 defensive box plus/minus is second in the league this season. With Maxey and Harden as defensively challenged as any backcourt combination, throwing Caruso into lineups while one rests could help Philadelphia maintain its strong defense so far.
Sixers Linked to Alex Caruso in Trade Talks
With Philadelphia looking like the contender many thought they’d be at the start of the season, the team should be scouring the market for a player to bolster its title chances. And according to Sean Deveney of Heavy Sports, that player might just be Chicago Bulls guard Alex Caruso.
“The guy to watch is (Alex) Caruso,” one Eastern Conference GM told Deveney. “If [Chicago] can get some draft capital back for Caruso, and maybe a player, that would suit them. Teams like Phoenix or Miami, both would be in a position to make a trade like that. Even the Warriors, they could send out a young guy, a guy like (James) Wiseman to get into win-now mode.
A little drive-by wave from Alex Caruso at this morning’s shoot-around.
Caruso remains out for tonight’s game against Houston with that AC sprain. He is also still under concussion protocol.
“Philadelphia, same thing, they could offer some of their young guys—Matisse Thybulle, Shake (Milton) and add another guy to make the salaries work. The Lakers certainly would like to have him back if they had the young guys to do it.”
The Sixers could do worse than target a guy who earned a name for himself alongside LeBron James and Anthony Davis in his Los Angeles Lakers days.