The Philadelphia 76ers have traded rookie forward K.J. McDaniels to the Houston Rockets in exchange for second-year guard Isaiah Canaan and a second-round pick, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. The deal was completed just before the trade deadline Thursday, adding another second-round pick to Philadelphia's ballooning stockpile.
76ers trade K.J. McDaniels to Rockets, per report
The 76ers got Isaiah Canaan and another future second-round pick in exchange for the No. 32 pick in the 2014 draft.
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Sixers GM Sam Hinkie has been active before the deadline this year, shipping out young players like McDaniels and starting point guard Michael Carter-Williams while accumulating more assets. The team’s focus on picking up draft picks has been apparent for a while now, but it reared its head again Thursday with some significant moves.
That gave the Rockets a chance to get an intriguing wing for some extra depth, which is always useful for a hopeful contender.
What the Rockets are getting
McDaniels was originally drafted by the 76ers with the No. 32 overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft out of Clemson. He started his rookie season strong, averaging 10.2 points per game while shooting 47 percent overall and 40 percent from three through November, but has slowed down significantly over the past few months.
Since the beginning of December, McDaniels is shooting just 37 percent overall and 24 percent from three, and he finally saw his minutes dip a couple weeks ago after falling out of favor. Now he heads to Houston, where he’ll get the chance to play alongside far superior teammates in a winning environment.
The Rockets are solid on the wings with MVP candidate James Harden and Trevor Ariza, but each of those two is playing roughly 36 minutes a night. Corey Brewer was brought in earlier this season to help, and now McDaniels can boost that effort.
What the 76ers are getting
After shipping out Carter-Williams in a separate deal before the deadline, Canaan should be able to pick up some of the slack at point guard in Philadelphia. He’s not a particularly exciting player, but he can hit three-pointers and help out an ailing backcourt.
The bigger get for Philadelphia is presumably the second-round pick, which continues an ongoing trend of stockpiling draft selections for Hinkie. The 76ers clearly couldn’t care less about winning right now, and swapping McDaniels for Canaan while getting another pick tossed in certainly fits with that strategy.
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