Two days before this year’s NBA trade deadline, the league went completely off the rails. <\/p>\n
The Utah Jazz traded three first-round picks<\/a> for a package headlined by Jaren Jackson Jr. The Cleveland Cavaliers and Los Angeles Clippers effectively swapped<\/a> Darius Garland and James Harden. Jaden Ivey and Mike Conley are now on the Chicago Bulls<\/a>. And the Boston Celtics landed Nikola Vu\u010devi\u0107 while moving closer to ducking the luxury tax.<\/p>\n Amidst all of that, the Sixers have done\u2026 nothing. Yet, anyway.<\/p>\n The Sixers still have time between now and the 4 p.m. ET trade deadline on Thursday to swing a deal or two. If nothing else, they’re close enough to getting under the luxury-tax line\u2014less than $1.3 million<\/a> in the wake of Paul George’s recent suspension\u2014that they’re a virtual lock to do so. Beyond that, it’s anyone’s guess.<\/p>\n We’ll be updating this throughout the day Wednesday and Thursday as new Sixers rumors emerge. Until then, we’ve highlighted a few of our favorite trade targets below.<\/p>\n Top Sixers Trade Targets<\/p>\n Before news of George’s suspension broke, we published a big board<\/a> with our top seven Sixers trade targets. Two of the seven (Keon Ellis and Jock Landale) have already been traded, although the Jazz could always move Landale again before the deadline.<\/p>\n Our top target was New Orleans Pelicans forward Saddiq Bey. The Villanova product is averaging a career-high 16.3 points to go with 5.8 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.8 threes in only 30.3 minutes per game this year. <\/p>\n Bey is earning only $6.1 million this season and $6.4 million next year. If the Sixers traded Andre Drummond ($5.0 million) and Eric Gordon ($2.3 million) while bringing back Bey, they’d land just below the luxury-tax line. However, they wouldn’t be far enough under it <\/a>to convert both Jabari Walker and Dominick Barlow from two-way deals to standard contracts without going back into the tax. <\/p>\n With George suspended until late March, the Sixers badly need additional wing depth. Bey might be the best discount option available.<\/p>\n Houston Rockets forward Tari Eason was our No. 2 target, although longtime NBA insider Marc Stein recently reported<\/a> that he “is not available to interested teams.” Eason was more of a pie-in-the-sky idea than a realistic trade target, although an Eason-for-Quentin Grimes swap would make some sense for both sides.<\/p>\n Chicago Bulls guard Ayo Dosunmu was No. 3. The Bulls’ roster currently consists of roughly 13 guards and two forwards\/bigs and they’ve begun a long-overdue teardown, so Dosunmu very well could be available over the next two days. The Sixers would almost have to move off Quentin Grimes’ $8.7 million contract to take back Dosunmu’s $7.5 million deal. They’d be one Gordon salary dump away from having enough room under the tax to convert both Barlow and Walker.<\/p>\n Landale, who was No. 6, feasibly still could be a trade target as long as the Jazz didn’t have to aggregate him with other contracts. And Washington Wizards wing Justin Champagnie, who was No. 7 on the original list, should now rise higher in the wake of George’s suspension.<\/p>\n The Sixers’ top-heavy salary structure<\/a> is among the reasons why they aren’t popping up in a flurry of trade rumors leading up to the deadline. Unless they move off George or Joel Embiid, they’re fairly limited in terms of the size of contracts they can take back in a trade.<\/p>\n Still, given their proximity to the tax line in the wake of George’s suspension, everyone should brace themselves for the Sixers’ Fourth Annual Tax Duck. It’s just a question of how they’ll pull it off rather than if they will.<\/p>\n Unless otherwise noted, all stats via\u00a0NBA.com<\/a>, PBPStats<\/a>, Cleaning the Glass<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Basketball Reference<\/a>. All salary information via Spotrac<\/a> and salary-cap information via RealGM<\/a>.<\/p>\n