Rumor Report: Sixers Showing Interest In Kings’ Forward

By Kevin McCormick, Sports Talk Philly Editor

As the All-Star break slowly approaches so does another key date, the March 25th trade deadline. Teams have three weeks left to make the necessary moves to upgrade their roster before the playoffs.

The Sixers have been linked to some names in recent weeks, and now a new target has popped up. Shams Charania of The Athletic has reported that the Sixers are among the list of teams expressing interest in Sacramento Kings' forward Nemanja Bjelica. Miami, Boston, Milwaukee, and Golden State are also rumored to be in the mix to acquire him.

Sacramento will likely be sellers as the deadline as they have lost 10 of their last 12 games. Bjelica has spent some time out of the Kings' rotation this season, which should make his price tag low.

In 18 games for the Kings this season he is averaging 8.3 PPG, 3.9 RPG, and 2.3 APG playing around 17 minutes per game. One potential red flag is that Bjelica is currently shooting a career-low 31% from beyond the arc.

Although his poor shooting is something to keep an eye on, it is something that could drastically improve when sharing the floor with players like Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid. Bjelica has shot over 40% from three for the past three seasons and has a career average of 38.9% from beyond the arc.

Bjelica is the exact type of player archetype that the Sixers should be eyeing at the deadline. Although Mike Scott has played well as of late, he has been riddled with injury this season and has struggled to put together some consistent play.

Adding a guy like Bjelica would give the second unit a reliable knock-down shooter on the outside and someone who can eat into the power forward minutes. That way Tobias Harris and Ben Simmons aren't logging big minutes every night.

This is a rather easy move for Daryl Morey to pull off if he wants to. Bjelica's contract is 7.1 million for this season, which would fit right into the team's trade exception from the Al Horford deal. With him being out of the rotation and having a down year, it would likely only cost a second-round pick to acquire the veteran sharpshooter.

Three-point shooting has been a weakness for the Sixers at times through this first half of the season. Adding a reliable shooter who can play with any lineup would be an instant upgrade for the Sixers. Also, at such a cheap cost, it wouldn't eat into any of the tradeable assets Morey still has at his disposal.

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