With early struggles, the Sixers made a move that shakes up the entire eastern conference. Acquiring all-star Jimmy Butler, and Justin Patton from the Minnesota Timberwolves for Dario Saric, Robert Covington, Jerryd Bayless, and a 2022 second round pick. He immediately impacts this team giving them that impact scorer they desperately needed at the wing. He is also held as one of the premier defenders in the league, so losing Covington isn’t as detrimental as some would imagine. You would hope Justin Patton can bounce back after overcoming injuries early in his career, a trend the 76ers are used to.
Jimmy Butler will come in to join an MVP candidate Joel Embiid, who has had nothing but impressive numbers to start the season, as Joel is proving all of the doubters wrong. Butler immediately not only helps Embiid, but also all on the floor. His ability to score alone will have to keep the defense on their toes, leaving the offense much more wide open. His isolation scoring is something basketball fans in Philadelphia haven’t seen since back to the Iverson days.Butler is one of the “high usage players”
Considered with some of the most clutch points per game, only with LeBron James, not bad company.
This also will help lessen the pressure on Fultz, who has not had an ideal start to his young career. After battling injuries and now adjusting to the NBA game, he simply has not been able to play as he, or everyone else anticipated. This helps him focus on his game, and the best way he can help the team. Hopefully having players like Jimmy Butler will now help learn how to work on his own game. Hopefully this can help Simmons shot as well, he will be able to isolate himself and get to the lane more often, with less pressure to shoot as often.
This is a hard trade for fans of “The Process” Saric, and RoCo were huge parts of the team, and had played very solid roles on this team. At the end of the day, they simply could not get it done scoring wise with that roster. This is a gamble, but it immediately sures up the 76ers chances in the Eastern Conference. If Butler and the Sixers can work together, this big three of Butler, Simmons, and Embiid, could be very dangerous.
To this point in the season the Sixers are third in the Eastern Conference, and they are thenth in the league in scoring. Obviously Embiid and J.J. Reddick have been the main guys, but now opening up the offense even more for when they do hit some struggles during games. Time for the new look 76ers to show what they are capable of.