Sixers Send Jimmy Butler to South Beach in Sign-and-Trade Deal

As the Philadelphia Sixers continue to build around Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons, they will do so without the services of Jimmy Butler.  The Sixers sent Butler to Miami in a sign-and-trade deal with Miami, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.com.

In return, the Sixers land 25-year old Josh Richardson, who scored 16.6 point per game on 35% shooting from three-point range.

It sounds like the Sixers weren't all that interested in bringing Butler back into the mix, with Woj saying on Sportscenter that the Sixers were "out of the Jimmy Butler business."

"The Jimmy butler experiment didnt go the way they hoped, they were not giving Jimmy Butler a five-year max, they were not giving Jimmy Butler a four-year max."

The move definitely changes the look of the Sixers.

"They certainly transformed their roster for the second time in several months," Woj said on Sportscenter.

On opening night, one would assume that Richardson would replace J.J. Redick, who bolted for New Orleans, in the Sixers' starting back-court. Their forwards project to be the returning Tobias Harris and newcomer, Al Horford, with Embiid in the middle of it all.

The Sixers bench will have at least one familiar face next season, with Mike Scott getting a two-year, $9.8 million deal to return to Philadelphia. In 27 games in Philly, he averaged 7.8 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 1.8 threes in 24 minutes.

The team’s frontcourt still needs some more depth behind Joel Embiid and Tobias Harris, who most likely slides into the three position with Horford at the stretch-four. One help will be having Horford to backup Embiid.  The team had all sorts of issues when Embiid left the floor in the playoffs, now they can slide Horford over to the center spot when Embiid either sits or misses a game.

"They bring a team defensively that will be as good as any team in the NBA," Woj explained when discussing the Sixers deals.

Others in the second unit include the last two first-round picks, Zhaire Smith and Matisse Thybulle.  Both can provide defensive right away, but their scoring punch will be questioned.

A few areas the team will still need to fill is a backup point guard who can score the ball behind Simmons, and quality big man behind Embiid and a shooter to replace Redick

Marial Shayok is a second-round pick who might be able to fill that void and Jonah Bolden can continue to provide minutes off-the-bench, but there is still work to be done, so lets wait and see what is next - should be interesting.