It was 2006, the Phillies were coming off of a 9–18 June, and puttering along the schedule with a .500 July then the team traded its “star” player Bobby Abreu and finished the season 39-23, just missing out on the Wild Card. The trade allowed an unknown rule five draft pick by the name of Shane Victorino to enter the lineup.
Victorino developed into a Gold Glove Major League outfielder and was an important piece of the Phillies 2008 World Series Championship team.
But, what if the Phillies held on to Bobby Abreu for an extra season? Does Victorino gain the same Major League experience coming off the bench for the entire 2007 season? Would he have been ready to take over center field for Aaron Rowand in 2008?
The Phillies realized with Abreu what the 76ers have yet to realize with Andre Iguodala, if the team’s star player is expendable how much of a star player is he?
The Sixers have young talent that is capable of taking over for Iguodala. The Sixers could use that 80 million dollar contract to improve on other team needs such as center and shooting guard.
The Phillies trade of Abreu in 2006 forced some young players to get more playing time, and other young players to step up as 
leaders. It was the catalyst in the Phillies turning into World Champions.
The time to trade Iguodala is now. It is time for Jrue Holliday to become the face of the 76ers franchise. It is time to see if Thad Young can produce as a starter the way he has off the bench. It is time to find out if Evan Turner can handle playing extended minutes and eventually become a starter himself.
Trading Iguodala does not mean the Sixers will win a championship but it could be the spring board to the 76ers becoming a force in the NBA. The Phillies are proof a franchise can change by the method of addition by subtraction.
It is easier said than done, but the 76ers need to dump Iguodala if they are going to move forward as a franchise. Iguodala averages 15 points per game for his career, his numbers do not warrant his salary. Iguodala averaged just 14.1 points per game this past season. The Sixers 6th man Lou Williams averaged 13.7 points per game. When any bench player is less than one point per game behind the 80 million dollar ”star” forward something is wrong.
The 76ers front office has said in the past they will not just trade a player to dump salary, in Iguodala’s case it is a must. No NBA team is going to provide any type of value in return for a 80 million dollar player averaging just 14 points per game.
The Sixers need to do what the Phillies did back in 06 with Bobby Abreu, the Phillies traded Abreu to the Yankees for shortstop C.J. Henry , left-handed reliever Matt Smith, catcher Jesus Sanchez and right-hander Carlos Monasterios. None of those players ever contributed to the Phillies four straight NL East titles.
The move allowed players already on the team prior to the trade to gain experience and develop. Could Evan Turner be the 76ers version of Shane Victorino? Without a trade fans may never know the answer.
I’m not a big Iggy fan either, but didn’t the 76ers go on a short losing streak at the end of the season with Iggy out nursing his sore knee ? What happened there?
I would say more like a Micky Morandini…
I understand the point you are trying to make in the addition through subtraction, but Iggy isn’t near the player that Abreu is. His production isn’t even close.
Bugsy,
There are parrellels between the two, they are both over paid and over rated nationally…. you could even throw McNabb into this mix, but in McNabb’s case he would be more talented then Iggy and bobby, the point is the Phils gave away Abreu, and the sixers need to do the same with Iggy
I think the parrellel is great !!
the way you compared Bobby Abreau and Andre Iguodala was worded perfectly. I completly agree with you. Say we had kept Abreau for that next season and Victorino never played. Who’s to tell that we would of even made the world series without him. He played a vital role in the 08 playoffs not to mension the entire season; at a time where we had no speed in the outfield .. Just look at Jayson Werth, if he never got his shot to play multiple games we may have never heard of him and, look at all he did for us. Just look at the contract he got this year, a guy off the bench who subbed in for i believe michaels if im correct and he started to produce and by the next season he was an official contributer. And the same thing for Iggy, we have arguably the best bench in the NBA. If Basketball was only 3 quarters we would be a top 5 team. Unfortunatly you need a real star player to close out games and, closing out games has been the sixers problem ever since iverson left and we were left with a bunch of guys who had to “practice”.(pun intended,hehe) I always thought to myself, man if the sixers had Howard, we would be a force to be reckoned with. Our sixers are a good team-look at the celtics games compared to the sixers.. The sixers needed just one big guy to get offensive rebounds and we could have possibly won that series or at least extend it to 6-7 games. Thad has been in our system for a good ammount of time now, its time for him to step up into the starter role. If the sixers got rid of Iguadala, in my opinion it would attract “real star players” to want to play for such a young talented team with an excellent coach. The sixers will always be a first round playoff team,or no playoffs with iggy being the star player..bottom line…hes not a one, or a two, hes a three and, for some reason the organization tries to pass him off as a one…such a well thought out article and it was put together perfectly…
first of all mcnabb was probably one of the best qbs this team ever had… look at who he had… the one year he had TO he put up mvp numbers. Also the phillies were lucky that victorino turned out to be great, not everyone is as succesful as him. i think the sixers need to get rid of lou williams and keep young as a sixth man and get a true shooter next to iggy or get rid of brand for a dominant PF. i think chris bosh would be a great fit for the sixers. iggy provides more than just stats, hes one of the best defenders in the league.
Sixers need to keep Lou Williams and get rid of Iggy, it’s not even close P-Four
C Bbosh has long-term deal with Heat, he’s not going anywhere..Lots of players would be great fits for the Sixers, but who’s out there that’s available is what the y have to focus on..
Pman-
All lou williams does is hack shots that a guy like turner or young could do just as easy. Yeah his ppg aren’t bad but his fg% always seems to be shit. He wastes valueble minutes that turner could use. I think lou is part of the problem, he’s like an undersized 2 guard who’s not a true shooter. And I know bosh is locked up, I was just saying I feel like he could have really helped us out, so don’t get all mad when I make a statement that won’t happen because you do that all the time. Personally I think the sixers will never win until the lebrons of the league retire and we get good youth, unless we sign or trade for a superstar, because you will only win with one.
To Phan-4
Lou Williams still has upside and is improving each Season which you cannot say about Iggy, who just needs to go…
I came on here and threw a few names out that we could look to acquire. Greg oden is one and Rudy Gay was another. They should look to trade iggy for Rudy Gay… rudy is long and plays good Defense and loves to score the ball, if the sixers could bait them with a trade, something like a 1st rounder and iggy for rudy gay…
Lou has been in the league for 6 years and his fg% has gone down 7 points from last season… at what point do we move on. Not only has his fg% dropped but so has his ppg plus he isn’t a passer like I would rather have.
To jhart-
I feel like rudy gay is a bigger version of iggy. Dunker, athletic, good d, not a great shooter. And the whole point of gettin rid of iggy is so people like young and turner get more minutes to develop and getting gay( who is also overpaid) who be pointless
Would be pointless**
And is there anyway we could get howard? I doubt it but just curious
No it wouldntt be pointless bc you would not only get very good defense from him but you’d also give you 20-24 pts a night something iggy after 7 years hasn’t done. That would be a win for both teams, in memphis iggy would only be asked to play defense and rebound the ball not score, it would be no pressure on him. Rudy would be asked to do what he’s been doing rebound, defend and score the ball CONSISTENTLY. That would be a great deal
And look into getting oden, if they can get those deals done and everyone is healthy the sixers will be instant contenders