Meet Your Newest 76er, Charles Jenkins

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A tradition old as time: The Sixers pulling up at the trade deadline,
making only the crappiest, lowest-leverage deals possible. In the last
five years, the most consequential trade-deadline deal the Sixers made
was sending a second-round pick to Milwaukee for shooting guard Jodie
Meeks (a second-round rookie himself) back in 2009, a trade that at
least netted us a legitimate rotation player (if not a particularly
high-upside one) for the next couple seasons after. We can only hope
that the deal the Sixers made today—sending a second-rounder to Golden
State for combo guard Charles Jenkins—reaches a similar level of impact.



So who is Charles Jenkins? If you're anything but the most die-hard
of NBA or college ball followers, chances are pretty good you've never
heard of the guy. He enjoyed a very successful four-year career at NCAA
powerhouse Hofstra, averaging 22 and 5 his senior year, on impressive
52% shooting—albeit mostly against Colonial Athletic Association
competition. He was taken in the second round with the 44th pick by the
Golden State Warriors, and he got a fair bit of playing time last year
with the team in full-on tank mode, averaging 5.8 points and 3.3 dimes a
game in under 18 minutes of action.


Decent numbers, but with the Warriors an actual playoff contender
this year, and the Warriors boasting one of the league's best backcourt
trio's in Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Jarrett Jack, Jenkins'
numbers sagged considerably this year, down to just 1.7 points and 0.6
assists a game on 42% shooting, in just under seven minutes a game.
Without a real role on the Golden State team and with the Warriors
looking to shed salary to stay under the luxury tax, they deemed Jenkins
expendable and shipped him to the Sixers. (Sam Amick tweets
that the Warriors won't likely ever even see a pick from the Sixers,
though what exactly that means is beyond my level of CBA expertise.)


On this Philly team, it's unclear what role Jenkins will have. He'll
likely push Royal Ivey for some backup guard minutes, but with Jeremy
Pargo signed for the rest of the season, he probably won't play much as
the team's primary backup point. He's more insurance against injuries to
Jrue and Evan, perhaps, but it's hard to see him really making much of
an impact in a fully-healthy Philly backcourt. All that said, my friend
Rich (a native Long Islander and Hofstra supporter) insists he could be a
steal:


Rich:  Jenkins may surpriseif you are expecting him to be awful
he'll be better than thatRich:  for the record, I am not being sarcastic
Andrew, Ads and I were in attendance when he broke the Hofstra scoring recordSpeedy Claxton was sitting courtsideit was star-studded


So there's that, at least. Besides, he's cheap, he's 23, he's got two working legs. Anything can happen.

Really,
as usual, the story isn't what the Sixers did at the trade deadline,
but more of what they didn't do: Namely, that they didn't deal
third-year frustration Evan Turner, who was very possibly being dangled
in front of the Orlando Magic in exchange for their shooting guard JJ
Redick. Ultimately, I'm glad no such deal went down—aside from my
personal attachment to ET, he's still a much higher-upside player than
the consistent shooter Redick, who would be a huge asset on a contending
team (too bad he got traded to the middling Bucks), but who would be
too expensive for a rebuilding team, as the Sixers may be the next year
or so. Still, the front office loves Redick, and if things are looking
good for the Sixers at the beginning of the next off-season—big
if—expect GM Tony DiLeo to make a push for him in free agency.


Anyway, looks like this is our team for the rest of the season. It
sucks, but at least there's still minor hope for the future, and at
least it'll be over before too long. Take solace in the little things.

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