Why We Should Never Trade AI, vol. 386

The Sixers recently outright released Derrick Byers, the G/F out of Vandy who doubled as the 42nd pick in the 2007 NBA draft.

What makes this ludicris is not that we cut a decent 2nd rounder who at least looked like a feasible rotation guy in school, but rather that by cutting Byers the Sixers essentially cut THE main reason why we made the AI trade with Denver instead of another team.

During the trade negotiations Billy King was adamant about obtaining “two first rounders!” seemingly regardless of where in the first round those picks would fall (I wonder if he understands the basic concept of the NBA draft or just assumes all first rounders are JUST LIKE the others).

This means that he accepted the 21st and the 30th pick instead of say, Boston’s, Atlanta’s, New York’s, or Golden State’s (other popularly mentioned destinations for the Answer) and this says nothing of young players who might already be good (espn was suggesting at the time packages built around Al Jefferson, Josh Smith, Channing Frye, or a package of Golden State young guys – Biendris, Monta Ellia, that foreign shooting guard who plays some D).

But no, Billy held onto his need to get two first rounders, than traded the second one of those (Petteri Koppenan) for the a second rounder (Byers) who he then had to cut because Byers wouldn’t play in Europe for us. Meanwhile, the 19 year old swiss guard would have ... shocking how it turned out that a 19 year old would accept staying in his foreign country while a 23 year old from Memphis TN might be more reluctant to the idea.

William King may be an excellent person, he may have solid morals, he may be generally smart, likeable, friendly, etc. but the man does not know how to run a basketball organization one bit, unfortunatlely, it seems that the Sixers are figuring this out the long, hard way.