Please Please Please Just Give Us Jrue
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I don't even want to count how many times over the years on If Not Pick Will Convey as Two Second-Rounders I've begged for the 76ers to either trade for or re-sign a once-Process Sixer. I've plead with Bryan Colangelo, with Elton Brand, with Daryl Morey. I've bargained with the Ghost of Sam Hinkie. Every time we've been one shooter short, had a hole at the backup center position, went into the trade deadline most in need of a locker room adrenaline shot, I've asked for them to find a former Sixer to make the team whole again. And every time, I've been denied: The only time since the Ish Smith days that the Sixers have actually gone for a two-timer was this summer with Danny Green, a guy who's barely been off the team for long enough for me to forget the things that drove me batty about watching him (and who I'm pretty sure was and is actually retired anyway).
And that's fine. I mean, not really, but I get it. Our GMs have priorities when doing their team construction thing that often go beyond sentimentality, narrative continuity, karmic balance and Hey Wouldn't It Be Hilarious If. That's cool, kinda. But not this time. This is the one. This is the all-too-rare moment when the Sixers' on-court needs, their locker-room needs and their Last Act of the Eventual 30 for 30 needs are all one and the same. This is when everything finally, actually, really comes together. This is when you just fucking gotta go and fucking get us Jrue Holiday.
Of course, Mike already wrote about this yesterday (in the Corner Three Newsletter). Sorry! I don't like doubling up on positions already articulated and defended by the senior council. But I also don't know how you could be a Sixers writer right now and not write about this. It's an all-takes-on-deck situation. Nothing else going on with the Sixers right now matters compared to this; assuming you've already watched the Mo Bamba interview, this is the lone matter of pressing business currently concerning this franchise. This is everything.
Chances are, you've already seen the term "full circle" about 97 times in relation to Jrue Holiday returning to the Sixers this offseason. It's accurate, but it barely even begins to cover it. This is isn't just a chance for the Sixers to end up back where they started, it's basically a chance to put Hinkie's Rib back in place. The entire Process started with the removal of Jrue from the Sixers; somehow, someway, almost exactly a decade later, there is a non-zero chance he could come back to us -- not as an Ish Smith-sized consolation prize or a Danny Green-styled vibes mascot, but as an actual All-Star-caliber difference-maker. I still have a gorgeous home white of his No. 11 jersey in my closet from the last time around; I have no idea how the thing still fits but it does.
Jrue still fits, too -- much better than he did when he was running with Thaddeus Young, Spencer Hawes and Evan Turner back in the Obama years, really. I mean, what do we want alongside Tyrese Maxey in the backcourt at this point in his career? Size, defense, smarts, stability -- playmaking and scoring too, but not so much that it relegates Tyrese to a secondary, here-if-you-guys-need-me role within the offense. It's Jrue! It's all Jrue. He's not a lead option on the perimeter at this point of his career, but only because he never was, really. He's averaged a stellar-for-a-third-guy 19 and 7 on 49/40/80 splits the last three years for Milwaukee -- and that's not even the side of the ball where he's most dangerous. You really could not ask for the Sixers to add a better-fitting piece at this late stage of both this particular offseason and the Process in general.
And there's no silver-medal acquisition to be had here. The Clippers are making us grovel for Terrence Mann right now, a player maybe 8% as impactful on winning as Jrue Holiday has been the last few years. Whatever the Clips would or could give us for James Harden, we'll be lucky if it's ever collectively a quarter as useful as Jrue would be right now. Even if you don't think The Damaja is the difference-maker we need to get over the hump next postseason you have to acknowledge he's a whole lot closer to that than any other player we could reasonably hope to add to our rotation between now and next April. Just by becoming available at this point in the summer, Jrue basically justifies Daryl Morey's decision to play hardball with Los Angeles; if Daryl actually lands him, that could alter the entire legacy of his time with the Sixers.
Speaking of Evan Turner, by the way: I don't know if you're following him on Twitter -- he's kind of a dope follow actually -- but he's been petitioning for Jrue to end up on the Celtics. Our guy Mike O'Connor also braced this particular idea last night, calling it a "nightmare scenario"; lord knows no shortage of those have been realized for the Sixers over the past half-decade at Boston's hands. Jrue torturing Tyrese as a Celtic in next year's playoffs... playing it in my head in September in bad enough, it playing out on ABC next May is not something I think I could come back from. MOC also suggests that to prevent that happening, Morey will have to "get crazy and overpay a bit," likely sacrificing whatever future flexibility (picks, cap space, young talent, Zach Bryan tickets at the Linc) the team may have been trying to hold onto for future planning.
And you know what? That's fine. The future is no longer really my concern. As far as I can tell, only two seasons exist at the moment for this franchise: This year with Joel Embiid, and next year without Joel Embiid. The Sixers have one more road trip with the big man this year to try to get further with him than we've ever gotten before -- and if we run out of gas before we get there, we’re dropping him off and watching him hitch back with another team. There's no holding back and maintaining flexibility to try to build a real contender around Joel next year -- not after this summer, not after last spring. It's this year or it's no year. If we get to next summer with no draft picks, no good young prospects, no cap space and still no conference finals appearances, well, at least trading one of the five best players in basketball usually lets you refill on one or two of those things. That's where we'd be at that point, and a lot of us will probably have long accepted it by that point.
But we'll feel better about it if we go down having properly shot our shot. I don't know what it'll take for us to land Jrue Holiday at this point, but the Kyle Neubeck report is out there that we're trying, and there's no putting that toothpaste back in the tube now. Really, I'm not even asking Daryl Morey to make this happen. I'm asking the Basketball Gods, who smote Zhaire Smith and Markelle Fultz all those years ago. I'm asking Dave Silver, who still owes us for first sending this train careening off the tracks eight years ago. I'm asking the Portland Trail Blazers, who are hopefully still furious at the Miami Heat for being dicks for the past three months and the Celtics for... I dunno, maybe just being the Celtics is enough. It's time for this one to go our way. It must happen. It should happen. Otherwise what have the last 10 fucking years been for anyway??