Philadelphia 76ers general manager Elton Brand made what seemed a series of perplexing moves on draft night. One of the oddest was trading Jonathon Simmons and a prime second-round pick to the Wizards, to basically save a mere $1 million of cap space.
“We need flexibility. I need every dollar that I can get, so that’s what a lot of those trades are about…
Of course, we now know the ‘flexibility’ he was talking about. Brand needed to squeeze every dollar to sign Boston Celtics center/forward Al Horford to a massive four-year contract worth between $97 to 109 million, depending on incentives.