The Philadelphia 76ers have spent the past four months restoring the hope of their fan base after a 24-win 2024-25 season. Tyrese Maxey was dazzled, Joel Embiid reassured, VJ Edgecombe was impressed and Paul George fit in. As a result, Philadelphia entered the February 5 NBA trade deadline eight games above .500, amid a five-game win streak. But after the deadline passed, it all came crashing down.
The 76ers sent Jared McCain to the Oklahoma City Thunder and Eric Gordon to the Memphis Grizzlies; Measures that allowed more flexibility in the salary ceiling and avoided the luxury tax threshold. The team did not add any new players and focused on having options down the line. This is the fourth year in a row that Philadelphia avoided additional spending, leaving fans furious that things weren’t improving.
The team was in an interesting spot heading into the deadline, owning the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference at the time. The 76ers enjoyed good production from Maxey and Embiid, who have led the East in total points since January. However, Philadelphia’s long-term prospects remained unclear with George still having 22 games remaining his 25-match suspension.
Entering win-now mode wouldn’t have been in the 76ers’ best interest, but marginal improvement was a must. Philadelphia – despite its uncertainty – had a great opportunity to make noise at a conference where no alpha was present. All it had to do was increase rotation, but instead it went backwards.
The 76ers traded McCain to the Thunder for a 2026 first-round pick (via the Houston Rockets) and three second-rounders just over 24 hours before the deadline. Daryl Morey said at his press conference Friday that he thought Philadelphia was being oversold — a comment that was poorly received by a grieving fan base. The McCain trade could have been manageable if the 76ers had another trade planned, but that wasn’t the case.
Morey said Philadelphia planned to use its newly acquired draft capital in another deal, but nothing came of it. Time will tell if this was the right move, but trading away a beloved player who still needs an offseason to develop has legitimately left a bad taste in the fandom’s mouth.
The trade also gave a taste of the direction fans hated: saving money, which confirmed Eric Gordon’s salary dump. Although the 76ers cut back on signing Dominick Barlow to a standard NBA contract on Thursday night, it sent a bad message to the fan base. They now believe that Philadelphia is not serious about winning and is more concerned with minimizing costs.
Things change quickly in the NBA and the 76ers have taken on a new challenge seemingly every season. But their repeated pattern of dodging the luxury tax for future maneuverability has dulled the fans’ spirits, which were just rekindling.
The fandom is also confused because Philadelphia could have kept McCain and dealt Gordon, still giving it the wiggle room to secure Barlow long-term. The 76ers’ course of action was apparently to avoid the tax unless a proposal was made, which did not happen. Meanwhile, the Detroit Pistons, New York Knicks, Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers all improved.
Philadelphia, on the other hand, will end the season with the same roster without McCain and Gordon. It can still compete with any conference heavyweight, but things certainly got tougher. The 76ers, with two open roster spots, will likely be active in the buyout market. But their options will be limited, making their inaction on the deadline even more discouraging.
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