With Buddy Hield (expectedly) gone, Sixers must find depth that fits

Among Daryl Morey’s more quotable moments of the offseason was his assessment of the trade-deadline move that brought Buddy Hield to the Sixers in February.

“I think at no fault of Buddy’s, the fit was less good than I thought,” Morey, the 76ers president of basketball operations, said at his season-end news conference in the wake of the Sixers’ loss to the Knicks in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs.

The Hield Era officially ended on Thursday when the Sixers accepted a second-round pick from the Warriors in exchange for signing the sharpshooter to a free-agent contract and then shipping him to Golden State.

Though Hield’s departure comes as little surprise, it does shine a light on the challenge that Morey faces in building out his roster around Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, and the newly acquired Paul George. It’s hard enough to fund a deep rotation when adding a third max-level contract. The Sixers are in the unprecedented situation of trying to do it without any incumbent reserves.

» READ MORE: Sources: Sixers sending Buddy Hield to Golden State Warriors via a sign-and-trade deal

At the moment, the Sixers are at least two players shy of a full 10-man regular-season rotation. And that is if you include rookie first-round draft pick Jared McCain and second-year wing Ricky Council Jr. as back-end contributors, plus 36-year-old Eric Gordon, who has agreed to a veteran-minimum contract.

The presumption is that, in one form or another, the Sixers will swap out fourth-year center Paul Reed, and his $7.7 million salary, for a wing who can start. The smart money is currently on one of a pair of Heat free agents, playoff dynamo Caleb Martin or late-bloomer Haywood Highsmith, either of whom would slot in nicely alongside Kelly Oubre Jr. and the Big Three.

Beyond that, it is anybody’s guess how Morey intends to fill out a rotation capable of withstanding the rigors of a regular season.

The Sixers’ president has had his fair share of water-from-rock successes during his first four years at the helm:

The headline of Morey’s first month was his ability to shed the contracts of Al Hoford and Josh Richardson, both of whom had proved to be clunky fits alongside Embiid and Ben Simmons. But Morey also managed to land a couple of cost-effective veterans who played pivotal roles in the Sixers’ surprising surge to the No. 1 seed in the East in the following regular season.

Danny Green’s Game 3 injury against the Hawks in 2021 is one of the great forgotten variables of the Embiid era. If Green had been healthy for the last four games of the series, the Sixers would have been playing in the Eastern Conference Finals. I firmly believe that.

The veteran three-and-D wing was a nice little pick up in what was essentially a salary-dump trade that sent Horford and a first-round pick to the Thunder in December of 2020. He averaged 28 minutes per game and shot 40.5% from three-point range.

Morey’s acquisition of Seth Curry for Richardson and a second-round pick was a home run by any measure. In his year-and-a-half with the Sixers, Curry averaged 31.4 minutes and 13.6 points per game while shooting 42.6% from three-point range.

Ironically, the Sixers would be well-served adding another De’Anthony Melton-type who can give them a ball-handling guard option to go with the aforementioned TBD wing. Morey acquired the then-24-year-old on draft night in 2022 for a first-round pick and Green.

Melton wasn’t a game-changer during his one healthy season with the Sixers, but he filled a role, shooting 39% from three-point range while playing solid defense and averaging 10.1 points per game.

Melton’s back injury this season sapped a lot of value from the trade. But the fit was fine.

» READ MORE: The Sixers’ lack of young talent and the NBA’s evolving trade market made Lauri Markkanen an unlikely Plan B behind Paul George

The Sixers didn’t agree to terms with Oubre until September of last year, months after the initial free-agent rush. He proved to be an absolute steal. Hard to imagine what the Knicks-Sixers series would have looked like without Oubre’s tough defense on the perimeter.

The big question from here on out isn’t about the Sixers’ ceiling. We know what that is. If George, Embiid, and Maxey can avoid any extended absences, they should compete for one of the top two or three playoff seeds. Rather, the question is their floor.

The depth of that will depend upon their depth on the bench. Can the once-rock-solid Gordon still contribute regular rotation minutes? Will Kyle Lowry return? Can Morey find another Curry or Oubre instead of another Danuel House Jr. or Hield?

In a lot of ways, the most interesting part of the offseason is only now upon us.

» READ MORE: Jared McCain has a lot of Steph Curry traits. The Sixers were wise not to pass that up.