The Philadelphia 76ers made the James Harden trade earlier this season and probably needed some more help offensively as a result, especially with Joel Embiid out.
The answer to that? It came at the 2024 NBA trade deadline in the form of a Buddy Hield trade.
The Sixers will get one of the NBA’s best shooters from distance, despite the fact that Hield has taken a bit of a step back this season with Indiana. He’s still shooting 38.4 percent from the three-point line this season and will join a lethal Sixers team, especially when Embiid is back.
So who won this one? Let’s hand out some grades:
First, the details
The Indiana Pacers are trading Buddy Hield to the 76ers for Marcus Morris, Furkan Korkmaz and three second-round picks, sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) February 8, 2024
PACERS GET: Marcus Morris, Furkan Korkmaz, three second-round picks
76ERS GET: Buddy Hield
Philadelphia 76ers
I like it! Yes, Hield is a rental in the final year of his contract, but when you’re a contender in an Eastern Conference that feels WIDE open at the moment, you go for it, and the cost wasn’t really that much — not one first-rounder got dealt!
Hield will fit in nicely, and when Embiid comes back, he and Tyrese Maxey will love having another shooter to join Tobias Harris to hit from deep in the postseason.
GRADE: A-
Indiana Pacers
Is it the best haul? Not really. The seconds are fine, Morris’s contract is an expiring one, and the same goes for Korkmaz. I don’t know how much more the Pacers could have gotten, but it feels like they got something out of what could have been Hield leaving for nothing this summer.
GRADE: C+
