Four days from the NBA trade deadline, the Sixers’ season enters a critical week | David Murphy

There should be no mystery about what the 76ers will be trying to accomplish over the next four days.

Even if we did not already know that team president Daryl Morey and his front office have been doing their due diligence on a variety of backcourt options in advance of the NBA’s March 25 trade deadline, it would be difficult to dream up some other endeavor that might be occupying their time. That’s how obvious the hole on their roster is. Stare into it long enough, and it stares back through you.

This particular abyss has existed far longer than the current regime’s personnel responsibilities. Ever since Markelle Fultz arrived from college without his mojo, the Sixers have been searching for some version of the player that the former No. 1 overall pick was supposed to be, which is a player who can bring to the backcourt the things that Simmons doesn’t, namely the ability to consistently create buckets off the dribble against a stout halfcourt defense.

While Simmons has never had a perfect complement playing alongside of him, the last four years have offered some circumstantial evidence of the success that such a player could breed. Think back to 2017-18, when the Sixers’ best offensive pairing wasn’t Simmons and Joel Embiid or Embiid and JJ Redick, but Simmons and Marco Belinelli, the free-wheeling Italian who jacked up an impressive 18.2 field-goal attempts per 100 possessions after joining the team in February. In the nearly 500 minutes that the duo shared the court together, the Sixers scored an average of 118.1 points per 100 possessions, more than any other twosome on the team. League-wide, Simmons and Belinelli ranked 40th out of 970 duos that logged at least 400 minutes of court time.

In 2018-19, the fit between Simmons and Jimmy Butler may have been uncomfortable, but it was unquestionably productive. That pairing produced 116.1 points per 100 possessions and outscored opponents by an average of 6.3 points.

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It goes without saying that Belinelli and Butler are wildly different players, but the one thing they had in common was an ability and willingness to get themselves looks. This season, there have been plenty of stretches when Tobias Harris has filled that role, but there have also been plenty of others that have called for a level of dynamism off the dribble that the veteran forward simply does not possess. The most recent of these stretches came last Wednesday in the final two quarters and overtime of a 109-105 loss to the Bucks. Against a talented pair of wing defenders in Jrue Holiday and Khris Middleton, the Sixers ran into a brick wall, with Harris and Simmons combining to shoot 14-of-39 from the field for the game.

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While there’s an argument to be made that the presence of an injured Embiid was the biggest factor in the loss, this was also a game where it was remarkably easy to envision the impact that a backcourt scorer would have had. Swap out Danny Green for a player with the offensive skill set of someone like Kyle Lowry and the results would have been radically different. The utility of such a player was so obvious that, by the end of the night, the future acquisition of such a player felt like a foregone conclusion.

Which brings us to this week. There are a lot of different directions the Sixers could go to give themselves that additional offensive spark they will need once the court shrinks in the postseason. A reunion with Redick is a tantalizing possibility, but only if it comes by way of a post-buyout signing that preserves Morey’s ability to cobble together enough salary to facilitate a trade for a creator. Lowry, the veteran point guard and former Villanova great who is in the final year of his contract for the struggling Raptors, is the obvious and ideal fit. But there are a variety of guards who would at least give Doc Rivers a better chance to manufacture offense than he currently has. From the Thunder’s George Hill to the Pistons’ Delon Wright, the addition of a player who can get himself open off the dribble would add a critical element to this Sixers team. If combined with a shooter like Redick, it would leave them with the potential for a far more formidable level of bench scoring than they currently have.

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More than anything, such an addition would help shake things loose on the nights when a team like the Raptors or the Bucks or the Heat has the clamps screwed tight, a player who can allow Simmons to move to the corner or the dunker spot instead of dribbling at the top of the key with a wall of bodies in front of him.

They’re going to do something. They almost have to. Elsewhere in the Eastern Conference, the contenders are adding their missing pieces. In Trevor Ariza and P.J. Tucker, the Heat and Bucks have both added another wing defender that the Sixers will need to contend with. An offensive complement to Simmons could have every bit the impact that the arrival of Seth Curry has had for Embiid this season. We know they need it. The Sixers know they need it. Between now and Thursday evening, they need to get it done.