Minnesota Timberwolves: A comparable future outlook to the 76ers
By Ben Beecken
The Complementary Pieces
This is where things start to get a bit dicey for the Sixers.
It was, after all, the role players that were decimated when Philadelphia decided to make a move for Butler last November. Dario Saric and Robert Covington were two key pieces of the starting lineup for the Sixers as they advanced to the second round last season, and along with backup point guard Jerryd Bayless were jettisoned in favor of Butler.
Covington is one of the league’s premier 3-and-D players and is on a team-friendly contract for another three years. Saric is still only 25 years old and is a versatile stretch-4 who will be eligible for an extension soon.
Then, the Sixers dealt promising rookie Landry Shamet and veterans Wilson Chandler and Mike Muscala to the Los Angeles Clippers in order to land dynamic stretch-4 Tobias Harris. (More on this trade when we get to reviewing future assets…)
That meant that basically everything beyond backup point guard T.J. McConnell, the de facto sixth-man, was a revolving door. Of players who finished the season on the Sixers’ roster that weren’t a starter or McConnell, Amir Johnson‘s 51 games and 10.4 minutes per contest were tops.
Other bench players included Mike Scott (27 games), Jonah Bolden (44 games), Furkan Korkmaz (48 games), and Boban Marjanovic (22 games), plus a host of guys who were waived or traded. The Sixers had 26 players wear their jersey in a regular season game this year — a crazy number for a 51-win team.
The Wolves have Covington and Saric, of course, and beyond that things are a bit up in the air. Tyus Jones is one of the better backup point guards in the league but is a restricted free agent. Derrick Rose is an unrestricted free agent, as are Taj Gibson and Luol Deng.
That said, the Sixers don’t have any more stability, and the starters Harris and J.J. Redick will be unrestricted free agents themselves. And don’t forget about Korkmaz, Scott, and McConnell.
This is a wash, at best, and one could argue that the Wolves are in a more enviable spot due to the potential that remains with both Saric and Covington in the fold.