About The Other Two Teams
Philly fans would be scrunching their face and asking, “Why would we ever take Meyers Leonard!?” Here’s why.
As I said, this trade is already whacky and unrealistic as it is. If I’m going to trade the best big man in the game, I don’t want to get a player in return that’s going to get in Ben Simmons’ way.
I wanted the Sixers to achieve optimal floor spacing without neglecting the boards. So off to basketball-reference player finder I went.
To my surprise, there are only ten players listed at either center or center/forward in the entire league that are making at least one 3-pointer per game and grabbing at least five rebounds per game. Two of them are already on the roster in Horford and Embiid.
Karl-Anthony Towns is not available and neither is Nikola Jokic. Nikola Vucevic would be a great pickup at center but they just don’t have any other young assets that the Sixers would want, plus he uses his back to the basket skills to score down low, which is what Embiid already does. You might as well not do the trade, because it’s an even swap on skillsets, while you have the player with the most talent and upside.
There are a few others on this list, but when you think of these players, they’re either lane cloggers or old (sorry Marc Gasol). We’re trying to keep Simmons clog-free. Meyers Leonard is tenth on this list, but he makes it nonetheless.
Leonard is great at calling out the defensive coverages from the backline. He’s unselfish and can knock down his open threes (even from the top of the key).
Yes, my proposed deal would require some faith from the front office as well as the fans, but they’ve done that before. If he can get his player efficiency rating up from 11 to about 15-18 where Aron Baynes and Gorgui Dieng live, it’s a win-win situation. “Trust the process”!