3 three-team trades that send Eric Gordon to the Philadelphia 76ers

Eric Gordon to the Philadelphia 76ers Trade #2

If you believe you can never have too much shooting, then this is the trade for you. Eric Gordon and Buddy Hield head to Philadelphia, TJ McConnell and Furkan Korkmaz head to Houston, and Tobias Harris and Sterling Brown go to the Indiana Pacers. To sweeten the deal, the Pacers get the Sixers’ 2029 first, and the Rockets get the Boston Celtics’ 2023 first via the Pacers. 

Now, this is a trade that I think the Sixers could possibly entertain. Hield and Gordon are two of the best 3-point shooters in the league who should feast playing off of the James Harden-Joel Embiid pick-and-roll. Their defense could take a hit, but if you’re scoring 120 points per 100 possessions, it doesn’t really matter if your defense leaves something to be desired. 

This is a deal that the Pacers could be interested in as well. The Pacers should be applauded for balking at engaging in complete teardowns. Is it the smartest way to win a championship? Maybe not, but believing that your fans deserve the best possible team year in and year out is noble. Flipping Hield and McConnell for Harris and Brown make Indiana a better team this year and next. A starting lineup of Myle Turner, Harris, Bennedict Mathurin, Chris Duarte, and Tyrese Haliburton probably won’t make the play-in, but it wouldn’t be crazy if they did either. 

The Pacers should also be ecstatic to turn a low-value first into a potentially high-value first. The Celtics are going to be good, but who knows what the Sixers will look like in 2028-29? The mystery of the pick makes it a more valuable trade chip. 

The Rockets would be crazy to turn down a first-round pick for Gordon and Brown, but adding McConnell and Korkmaz, who have three and two years left on their deals, might make them sweat a little. Houston is shaping up to have oodles of cap space in the summer of 2023, but the free agent class is a little lacking. Cap space is great, but if you have $1,000 to spend on dinner and your best option is a Little Caesars’ “Hot-and-ready” pizza, it can feel like a letdown, or you walk away with 200 pizzas. 

Next: Trade #1