The Philadelphia 76ers are landing sharpshooter Buddy Hield from the Indiana Pacers for Marcus Morris, Furkan Korkmaz and three second-round picks, according to The Athletic's Shams Charania. The deal, pulled off hours ahead of Thursday's 3 p.m. ET trade deadline, helps Philadelphia improve upon an existing strength, as the 76ers already had the NBA's best 3-point percentage this season and now add one of the 50 players in league history to shoot better than 40% from deep for his career.
Still, even if the 76ers make most of their 3's, they likely don't take enough for Daryl Morey's liking. His Houston Rockets teams routinely ranked at the top of the league in 3-point attemps, but this year's 76ers rank 16th in the NBA with 32.6 attempts per game. With Hield, they can now pair elite shooting with hopefully a higher shooting volume. Philadelphia badly needed this offensive boost with Joel Embiid sidelined due to a knee injury. The Sixers are 4-12 without Embiid so far this season, and they are likely to be without him for a while longer.
The other advantage to landing Hield for Philadelphia is his expiring contract. The 76ers are currently positioned to create around $55 million in cap space this offseason. Hield can help in the short term, but if Philadelphia has loftier ambitions this offseason, they can let him go if needed. If they decide to run it back? They have his Bird Rights and can re-sign him on a long-term deal.
Hield had played well for the Pacers this season, but trade rumors have followed him since he arrived in Indiana as needed matching salary in the Tyrese Haliburton-Domantas Sabonis swap. Hield had primarily been linked to the Lakers, but Indiana's guard glut meant that an eventual split was almost inevitable. The Pacers obviously have Haliburton leading their backcourt, but with youngsters Bennedict Mathurin and Andrew Nembhard ascending and veteran T.J. McConnell in place, there just weren't long-term minutes available in the rotation for Hield.
An in-season swap between two teams that are directly next to each other in the standings is rare. The 76ers are currently seeded No. 5 in the East, and the Pacers are two games behind them at No. 6. But Philadelphia has a far greater urgency to win now given Embiid's long-term health outlook. The Pacers can take a longer view with their youth, so they make a trade to pick up some extra draft capital and refocus around the rest of their backcourt. Here's how both teams grade in the trade:
76ers: B+
Philadelphia was walking a tightrope at this deadline. The Sixers wanted to improve their current team, but not by sacrificing first-round picks they might need to add a star down the line or by adding salary that interferes with their cap space ambitions this summer. Hield was one of the few players available who checked all of those boxes, and he's exactly the sort of player that Daryl Morey would target.
Philadelphia has been the most accurate 3-point shooting team in the NBA this season, but the squad ranks only 16th in 3-point attempts. Well, Hield has three of the top 15 seasons in NBA history in terms of made 3-pointers. He's going to singlehandedly raise Philadelphia's 3-point volume to a level Morey, whose Rockets typically led the league, would prefer. In the process, the 76ers cleared a roster spot they can use on the buyout market. If they can walk away from this deadline with Hield and a Kyle Lowry homecoming without having given away a first-round pick or taken on long-term salary, that's a really successful day.
Pacers: C
The Pacers weren't going to re-sign Hield. That much had been apparent for the better part of a year. Mathurin and Nembhard were far ahead of him on the hierarchy. The Pacers presumably want to find minutes for rookie Ben Sheppard as well. The raw concept of trading Hield for second-round picks wasn't crazy.
But the Pacers are in the thick of a seeding battle with the 76ers right now. With Joel Embiid sidelined, the Pacers could easily catch and pass Philadelphia in the near future. With the Heat and Magic both in striking distance, there's a real chance the Pacers land in the play-in round this season. That's not the end of the world, but guaranteed playoff experience matters to a team as young as the Pacers. They've made their lives harder on that front by strengthening the 76ers. Was that really worth a slightly better offer than they could have gotten elsewhere? Probably not.
