How Sixers players are handling the trade deadline: ‘Control what you can control’

Though the Sixers are not expected to pull off a seismic move before Thursday afternoon’s deadline, uncertainty has hovered for players who could be impacted even by a minor or cost-cutting deal.

by Gina Mizell

Published Feb. 9, 2023, 5:00 a.m. ET

BOSTON — When asked more than a week ago about how he is mentally handling the looming NBA trade deadline, 76ers wing Matisse Thybulle quipped, “My grandma stopped checking Twitter for those things, so I don’t really see them anymore.”

That was before Thybulle’s name was linked to at least the Sacramento Kings and Golden State Warriors, and he opened up about perpetually being in trade rumors. Though the Sixers are not expected to pull off a seismic move before Thursday afternoon’s deadline, uncertainty has hovered for players who could be impacted even by a minor or cost-cutting deal. Most have tried to make sure the outside rumblings do not consume their mind.

“I understood from a long time ago that everybody in this league is expendable,” said reserve center Montrezl Harrell, who was traded from the Washington Wizards to the Charlotte Hornets at last season’s deadline. “There’s not really many guys who can just pick and choose where they want to go. Probably like 10 guys. Fifteen, max. But there’s, what? Four hundred-plus guys in the NBA?

“So that’s a lot of guys who are just waiting for that call, waiting for that text message on where they’re going to be. I learned that a long time ago, and I don’t really pay that any attention.”

Like is usually the scene following most losses, the Sixers were quiet as they filtered out of TD Garden’s visitors’ locker room after falling to the Celtics late Wednesday. Yet they departed with the trade market officially humming. During the second quarter, news popped of a significant three-team deal that sent D’Angelo Russell from the Minnesota Timberwolves back to the Los Angeles Lakers, the Utah Jazz’s Malik Beasley and Jarred Vanderbilt (reportedly a Sixers target) to the Lakers, Russell Westbrook to the Jazz, and draft capital to the Timberwolves and Jazz. Then just after the final buzzer in Boston, the trade between the Portland Trail Blazers and New York Knicks that flipped Josh Hart for Cam Reddish surfaced.

And that was all before the middle-of-the-night bombshell, that the Brooklyn Nets had traded MVP contender Kevin Durant to the Phoenix Suns less than four days after sending All-Star Kyrie Irving to the Dallas Mavericks.

At least one Sixer hopes his name becomes a Twitter alert by Thursday afternoon. The Inquirer reported earlier this week that little-used swingman Furkan Korkmaz has requested to be moved, which also could help his team get under the luxury tax. Last season, similar feelings stemmed from James Harden and Ben Simmons, who wanted out of Brooklyn and Philly, respectively. Yet to complete that massive deal, the Sixers needed to attach sharpshooter Seth Curry, who is coach Doc Rivers’ son-in-law, and backup center Andre Drummond, who spoke last month like a man who was disappointed to leave the Sixers.

In the speculation fueled by salary-matching and roster-building, humanity can be lost for the players who might have their professional and personal lives abruptly upended. Yet they also can get sucked into tracing rumors, with Sixers guard De’Anthony Melton acknowledging, “It’s a little entertaining.” As a Memphis Grizzly last season, Melton remembers following the dramatic build-up to the Harden-Simmons blockbuster.

“There’s just so much media, so much social media and stuff like that,” said Melton, who has been traded three times in five seasons but never at the deadline. “It’s hard not to see.”

Other players purposefully ignore the outside chatter, with more than one leaning on the “control what you can control” cliché. The Sixers’ strong 22-7 record since Dec. 9 has helped Shake Milton, a reserve guard on an expiring $2 million contract, stay locked on basketball.

“Everybody on the team realizes that we have something special,” Milton said, “and we’re going to continue to try to cultivate it and do this thing the right way. … [I] keep my mind focused on what it needs to be focused on, and that’s preparing to play good basketball every single day. So from that aspect, it’s kind of easy.

“I know it might be tough having all those thoughts and people sending you tweets and talking about hearing your name left and right, but control what you can control.”

It took Georges Niang, a stretch-big on an expiring $3.5 million deal, some time to develop that mentality. When the deadline to pick up his contract option aligned with the trade deadline during his time with the Utah Jazz, Niang said he did “extra sprints” at the practice facility “just letting them know, if they needed me, I was ready.”

Now, the 29-year-old veteran’s mind is much clearer. So clear that Niang mistakenly thought this year’s trade deadline was Friday, instead of Thursday.

“See? I didn’t even know,” Niang said. “That’s how little I care. … As messed up as it is, I try to take the emotion out of it. Because this is a business, and you kind of think of it as such.

“If you let your emotions get the best of you, it kind of takes away from what you bring to the table.”