In a bit of a shocker, the 2020 NBA Draft saw the entire lottery go by without any trades, despite months and months of speculation that teams at the top would be looking to move down. Apparently the relative weakness of the top of this draft class proved to be enough of a deterrent for teams below to offer a strong enough package to move up, and for much of the draft, trade chatter was relatively minimal.
We did see the Thunder deal Ricky Rubio and a pair of late firsts to Minnesota for the 17th overall pick to take Aleksej Pokusevski and some other shuffling of picks in the bottom half of the first round, but it wasn’t until the second round that we got the biggest trade of the draft itself. According to The Athletic’s Shams Charania, the Dallas Mavericks and Philadelphia 76ers agreed to a shooting guard swap that would send Seth Curry to Philadelphia in exchange for Josh Richardson and the No. 36 pick, which they used on Tyler Bey.
Sources: Dallas is sending Seth Curry in trade to 76ers. https://t.co/zPq0DqBkKQ
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) November 19, 2020
Dallas is acquiring Philadelphia’s Josh Richardson and No. 36 pick for Seth Curry, source tells ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) November 19, 2020
It’s a trade that makes a lot of sense for both parties. The Sixers are a team in need of more shooting, and while they brought Danny Green in earlier on Wednesday in a deal with OKC for Al Horford and picks, it remained a significant need. At 21, they took Tyrese Maxey, who was a steal at that point in the draft but still didn’t address the shooting need, so swapping Richardson, who is an excellent player but likewise isn’t an elite floor spacer, for one of the league’s best long-range marksmen makes a ton of sense.
As for Richardson, he goes to a Dallas team that could use his two-way presence in the backcourt alongside Luka Doncic, and with their selection of Tyrell Terry with the 31st overall pick, they added a shooter that possibly gave them comfort to move on from Curry.