By Eric G. Stark
What If There Wasn’t Woj Breaking Stories
What if there was no Adrian Wojnarowski?
No, I do not wish him ill-will. In fact, I like guy.
I met him once at a 76ers game and my impression was he was a very nice man, very engaging. I enjoyed talking to him and it was easy to see why he us so well-liked and has a great repertoire with NBA players and executives.
He is a best-selling author of “The Miracle of St. Anthony” and he is the ultimate source for all things NBA. If there is a trade or free agent signing, a head coaching hiring or firing, there is a good chance Wojnarowski broke the story.
He normally posts it on Twitter and then the his company, ESPN, airs it across its crawl on the bottom of the TV screen.
During the NBA draft Thursday, June 20 Woj announced every trade and pick before NBA Commissioner Adam Silver took the podium. Woj tweeted the draft selections and mentioned the trades on the air on ESPN before it was “official.”
But what if there Woj wasn’t doing his job, breaking stories and news before everyone else? [See story on Woj and free agency.]
Remember years ago when you saw your favorite team make a selection and assumed that was the player the team actually drafted? A short time later you learned a trade was made, but at the immediate time, you thought the player selected was the player being drafted.
With that in mind, imagine if Woj or anyone else like him, was not tipping off the picks and trades ahead of time?
What if we didn’t know the Sixers traded up from pick No. 24 to No. 20 with the Celtics and Philly gave Boston the No. 33 pick as well.
If that were the case, Sixers’ fans would think the team drafted Ty Jerome, Carsen Edwards and Bruno Fernando with their first three picks at No.24, 33 and 34, respectively. Most people would be pleased with this haul, which includes a shooter (Jerome), a scorer (Edwards) and a mobile back-up big man (Fernando).
But that wasn’t the case. Philly had three draft picks in the top 34 picks and walked away with one player.
And because of social media and the great connection and reporting by Woj, fans didn’t have the carpet pulled out under their feet and at least saw what was coming and were not surprised.
Instead, Philly showed its hand early in the pre-draft process and the Celtics knew who the Sixers wanted to draft. Boston bluffed that were going to draft said player (Matisse Thybulle), forcing the Sixers to trade up and give up a value early second round pick to get their man.
It seems like the Sixers are never the team making the smart decision with trades. When was the last time Philly was the clear winner in a trade? You’d have to go back the Sam Hinkie era as general manager, where you clearly beat the Kings (Okay, that’s not hard), but also beat the Magic (Dario Saric) in 2016.
Think about some of the recent trades the Sixers lost.
They traded two players – Okafor and Nick Stauskas and the No. 31 pick in the 2019 draft (Nicolas Claxton, center Georgia ) for two months of Trevor Booker (he’s now playing in China). Claxton could have been a good backup to Joel Embiid.
The Tobias Harris trade also brought in Boban Marjanovic and Mike Scott, all of whom helped late last season, but the cost – two first round picks, including Miami’s unprotected No.1 pick, two second round picks, Landry Shamet, who can really hit the 3-pointer and veteran players Wilson Chandler and Mike Muscala, both of whom lackluster free agent pickup last off-season.
Celtics and Markelle Fultz trade, where Sixers gave up the third pick in the 2017 draft and the 14th pick in the 2019 draft to move up two spots and draft Fultz (the Sixers should have called Boston’s bluff and sat pat and stayed at No.3, just like they should have done this year with the No. 24 pick).
Now Celtics and Thybulle trade, where Boston got an early second pick and were able to pick in front of Philly and take a player that could have helped the Sixers – Edwards.
The Sixers keep losing on trades.
The thing I liked about Hinkie is he expected to miss on picks, so he tried to have as many assets as possible, knowing he’d it one or two of them. Sixers’ current GM Elton Brand tends to disregard assets, especially those in the second round.
Please understand, I think Thybulle will be a solid player for the Sixers, playing solid defense, scoring a few on a few outside shots and in transition, but the price was too high.
Put it this way: If the Sixers make just one of the two second round picks and I’d be happy (happier if it was No. 33 and they drafted Edwards).
Edwards reminds me of Tornoto’s Fred Vanfleet, a player who is instant offense off the bench. In fact, he compared himself to VanFleet and the Spurs’ Patty Mills; both players can score. Edwards open things up on the court, much like Shamet did.
Given their situation, the Sixers should be looking for every marginal advantage possible, looking for cheap options to to offset the high-priced started five, and yet team officials seem content and uninterested in the low-hanging fruit.
Unless it draws a big headline, Sixers management doesn’t seem to care. But they should. The little things matter.
What the Sixers did on draft not was not the end of the world, but it was annoying. This draft was the Sixers best chance to add cost-controlled, young talent to compliment what is going to be an expensive core group of star players.
The Sixers seem to be repeating the mistake of other star-hunting teams, going all in on a few talented players. But you need valuable, cheap role players to offset the expensive ones.