MCW Trade Rumor

What is Sam Hinkie thinking??? Who would even think about trading Michael Carter-Williams?? He was the Rookie of the year, he was the leader for the Sixers all year, and he was only one of four players in the entire league to average at least 15 points, 5 assists, and 5 rebounds per game. I repeat, who would even think about trading Michael Carter-Williams?? Well, Sam Hinkie would and he is indeed thinking about it.

The rumors began swirling about a week ago and have only surfaced more since then. Sixers GM Sam Hinkie, who drafted Carter-Williams with the 11^th overall pick in last year’s NBA Draft, is contemplating trading his Rookie of the Year PG to move up in this year’s draft if the Sixers were to receive the 4^th overall pick or the 5^th overall pick during the NBA Draft Lottery tonight. Who would Hinkie have in mind to trade up for if this scenario does become reality? This name may surprise people because it’s not Andrew Wiggins, not Jabari Parker, and not Julius Randle. It’s actually the 6’6 PG from Australia who goes by the name of Dante Exum. In recent weeks, Exum has been compared to MCW and scouts have concluded that Exum is a grade above MCW. Even though scouts may say he’s a better MCW, do the Sixers just give up on MCW and trade him, along with multiple picks, to move up only a few spots to get this guy? Rumors have said Hinkie is thinking about packaging a deal, possibly giving up both first round picks to move up to get Exum. This is extremely gutsy and would shock the league.

Sam Hinkie is a big analytics guy, so when the scouts said he’s a better MCW and can put up better stats then MCW, Hinkie began to think about it and he liked what he thought. Although this may be the case, will the Philadelphia fan base like what he’s thinking? I mean seriously, we drafted Carter-Williams along with Nerlens Noel to have them team up and play with each other, and now we’re thinking about trading MCW before he even gets the chance to play with Nerlens. Then once this story broke and the fans started thinking about it, people dug deeper into Carter-Williams’ stats and the key stats were he shot horribly from close range, and he also took way too many three-pointers. Although many people still didn’t like the idea of trading him, some people began to jump on the trade MCW train. All I’m saying is let’s hold up a bit. Let’s sit down and think about this. Who cares about the too many three’s he shoots or the bad percentage from close range, this guy led the team and he was the rookie of the year. How can you trade that? The answer is simply, YOU CAN’T!

Number one, everyone go take a look at foreign born players and how well they pan out in the NBA. Besides only a hand full of exceptions, they haven’t fared too well against NBA competition. Number two, the completion that Exum has faced is much weaker over in Australia then what Michael Carter-Williams faced while playing his collegiate basketball for Syracuse. And finally number three, I know I keep going back to this but MCW was the Rookie of the Year! I don’t know if Sam Hinkie knows this, but Rookie of the Year does in fact imply that he was the best Rookie of his draft class, which means we did a great job and we drafted a franchise PG who we can work with and put pieces around. MCW deserves better treatment than this.

Another argument can be, is Exum’s production going to make the team any more competitive than they were with Carter-Williams? No, and if it does make them better it’s still not enough to make a playoff run with just Exum and Noel.

If you’re a Michael Carter-Williams fan, like the majority of the city is, then we want to see the Sixers draw either the #1 or #2 overall pick tonight, because if we draw pick #4 or pick #5 it will leave Hinkie with a lot of possible options to do whatever he wants regarding the MCW/Exum trade. It will certainly make it less likely to happen if the Sixers get the #1 or #2 pick tomorrow night. This is another reason tomorrow night is incredibly important for the Sixers. 

We need to stop talking about this and drop this trade idea completely. Hinkie has does a marvelous job to this point but if he over thinks this situation and trades for a slightly better PG it could come back to bite him. Right now, we need the third piece to fit in with MCW and Noel. Wiggins, Parker, Randle, and even a guy like Stauskas would all be perfect fits to combine with Carter-Williams and Noel. The Sixers front office has to take advantage of this draft class. Draft a guy that’s going to be the play well with MCW and Noel and we’ll be heading in the right direction but if we reach up for Exum it could be costly.

Follow @WillRock2424 on Twitter