The Sixers have officially rid themselves of the Al Horford contract. Big Al is being sent to Oklahoma City along with a protected 2025 first round pick and second round pick in tonight’s draft (34 overall) in exchange for Danny Green and Terrance Ferguson.
The Sixers are trading Al Horford and a first-round and second-round pick to the Thunder for Danny Green, sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) November 18, 2020
While Green isn’t on the best of deals either (2-years, $30 million remaining) its certainly better than Horford’s number. Beyond that, the fit is obvious—Green is a a veteran 3-and-D wing with plenty of playoff and championship experience. His best days are well behind him, but he can still space the floor—36.7% on 4.8 threes per game last season, and 45.5% on 5.4 threes the year before—and play competent team defense, with a dose of on-ball value.
Ferguson is somewhat of a throw-in flier. He’s logged a decent amount of time over the past three seasons in OKC, and while he’s only 22, he isn’t much more than an inconsistent spot-up shooter who can handle difficult defensive matchups. I would imagine he’ll be used to spell Ben Simmons in a wing stopper role off the bench, if he’s able to crack the lineup at all. Obviously at his age he can still add a reliable jumper, in which case this sort of low-end flier on a potential role player would pay off.
One thing of note on both Green and Ferguson, they each ranked in the top 10 of “matchup difficulty” in the NBA last season—a list that Ben Simmons topped. Adding a bevy of somewhat interchangeable and versatile wing defenders is certainly on Morey’s checklist this offseason.
Ben Simmons also has the 1st ranked Matchup Difficulty, as seen in our Leaderboards tool.
— BBall Index (@The_BBall_Index) July 30, 2020
The top 10:
1. Ben Simmons
2. Dorian Finney-Smith
3. Royce O'Neale
4. Wesley Matthews
5. Terrance Ferguson
6. Danny Green
7. Tony Snell
8. Jrue Holiday
9. Dillon Brooks
10. Dejounte Murray https://t.co/rKU6ybXbvt
In Horford and Green, both teams are getting a player that fits their roster much better than the one they’re giving up, and both players are on bad contracts relative to their value—much will be made of who won the deal, but the truth is it’s a smart move for both sides. That’s what happens when you have two good GMs working on a deal.
It wasn’t hard to anticipate Morey putting his stamp on this roster early, and I suspect this will be the first of many moves overhauling the supporting cast of this team before the start of the season (Dec. 22).