After last night’s NBA Draft, the 76ers and Daryl Morey’s goal during the offseason became very clear: upgrade the team’s shooting and build around Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid.

The moves started before the draft kicked off by adding 40% career 3-point shooter Danny Green in a swap for Al Horford and some future picks. The trade not only brought a premier NBA 3-point shooter to Philly, but saved the Sixers a decent amount of money while adding valuable pieces to their roster. To put it in perspective, this season Al Horford is owed $27.5 million. Curry, Green and Ferguson are owed a combined $27 million.

Speaking of Curry, he is the ideal fit for the Sixers. With 6’10 point guard Ben Simmons and 6’5 guard Shake Milton, the Sixers can afford to have an undersized Seth Curry (6’2) in their back court and he will be able to provide much needed space in an off-ball role. Offensively, Curry looks like an ideal fit for the Sixers. The Sixers have now acquired one of the NBA’s best pure shooters. Curry’s 44% career 3-point accuracy ranks second in NBA history among qualifying players (Basketball Reference).

The most important part, however, is how appealing Seth Curry’s contract is for the Sixers. After heading into yesterday thinking the Sixers were backed into a corner financially, the team was able to unload Al Horford and trade for Seth Curry, who is locked in until 2022-23 at a reasonable average of $8.2 million per season. Richardson can become an unrestricted free agent this summer if he declines his $11.6 million player option. Both the long-term cost certainty and the slight savings from Richardson have value to a team like the Sixers who are in the luxury tax.

The Sixers now have roughly $6 million dollars to spend within free agency. That number still isn’t big but definitely has improved since the start of yesterday. Daryl Morey was able to get the Sixers out of the “salary cap hell” corner relatively quickly.

It will be interesting to see how aggressive the Sixers will be tomorrow when free agency opens and what trade pieces they have available. One thing is for sure: Ben Simmons is not one of them.

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