NBA Rumors: Sixers Could Reportedly Land Chris Paul Or Harrison Barnes For Al Horford, Other ‘Bad Contracts’
The Philadelphia 76ers haven’t quite been able to live up to many fans’ expectations this season, holding sixth place in the Eastern Conference with a 39-26 record at the time the NBA went on hiatus on March 11. Despite adding players such as Al Horford and Josh Richardson to a team led by point guard Ben Simmons, center Joel Embiid, and forward Tobias Harris, the Sixers remain a long shot to represent the East in this year’s Finals — assuming the league chooses to resume the 2019-20 season. However, a new report suggests that the team could consider moving Horford in the coming offseason for someone like Chris Paul of the Oklahoma City Thunder or Harrison Barnes of the Sacramento Kings.
In a list of teams that may already be “dreaming” of offseason trades, Bleacher Report‘s Greg Swartz explained in his entry for the Sixers that the team’s first move this summer should be to trade Horford due to their glut of power forwards and centers. As noted, statistics have shown that the 33-year-old’s presence alongside Embiid has mostly been counterproductive, as Philadelphia gets beaten by 1.4 points per 100 possessions when both big men are on the floor together.
“Moving Horford to the bench helps, but the Sixers still owe him $81 million ($27 million per season) over the next three years,” Swartz added. “With Simmons, Embiid and Harris all making $29 million or more starting next season, that’s too much to pay a backup.”
? Al Horford CHASEDOWN ?#PhilaUnite on @NBATV pic.twitter.com/FXAzUA9RIV
— NBA (@NBA) December 3, 2019
Given the situation with Horford, Swartz suggested that the Sixers’ best hope is to “swap bad contracts” and acquire a guard or forward whose game is more suited to that of the team. He mentioned Paul and Barnes as two players who could be better fits but didn’t bring up any other players who could respectively be moved to the Thunder or the Kings in order to make the deal work.
As previously reported by The Inquisitr, the idea of a Paul-for-Horford trade with the Thunder has been floated around before, with CBS Sports‘ Sam Quinn writing in January that such a deal would be the “best-case scenario” for Philadelphia ahead of the February 6 trade deadline. While the 34-year-old Paul is enjoying a career renaissance of sorts for Oklahoma City, he is on the second year of a four-year maximum contract extension that took effect in the 2018-19 season, per Basketball-Reference.
At 27 years old, Barnes is several years younger than Horford and has also been involved in his share of trade rumors involving the Sixers. His statistics, however, have mostly been on the decline this season, as he is averaging 14.7 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 2.4 assists as the Kings’ starting power forward, as shown on his Basketball-Reference player page.
