Well we’re just about at the end of August, and needless to say it’s been a rough summer for the 76ers so far. Joel Embiid failed in his efforts to recruit Lebron to Philadelphia, we missed out on acquiring Linsanity from the Houston Rockets (and more importantly, the first-round pick that would've come with Lin), we only picked up two top-10 picks in the NBA Draft, and according to several national media outlets, GM Sam Hinkie is ruining the very fiber of humanity by maliciously sabotaging the 76ers into Oblivion without any clear direction just for the purpose of his own sick enjoyment.

Our latest in a long series of disappointments is failing to acquire Anthony Bennett for Thaddeus Young in the 3-team deal that sends Kevin Love to Cleveland and Andrew Wiggins to Minnesota. It was always easy to be skeptical that Minnesota would dump off the 2013 first overall pick for what may very well be just one year of service from Thad, but I’ve been conditioned since Hinkie’s hiring in May 2013 to believe nearly any rumor that involves the Sixers.

So instead of Bennett, the Sixers will be shipping off Thad in exchange for Miami’s 2015 first-round pick, [1] Alexey Shved, and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, thus ending my dreams of ever owning an Anthony Bennett 76ers jersey.

The pick from Miami could end up being quite good. ESPN projects Miami to win 44 games in 2014-15, a record that would’ve been good for either the 17th or 18th pick in this summer’s draft. [2] The pick by itself is a solid return for Thad who, despite currently being the team’s best player and a fan favorite, was more than likely going to decline his $9,971,739 player option next summer and leave for a better team in unrestricted free agency.

What benefit adding Shved and Mbah a Moute brings remains somewhat of a mystery however. Shved is mostly known for his impressive outings for Russia in the 2012 Olympics and being perpetually sad while playing in Minnesota, while Mbah a Moute is a defensive specialist known as being the only other current Cameroonian NBA player besides a certain 76ers rookie. But as a result of being given limited playing time on some of the league’s smaller market teams over the last few years, [3] little is known about the on-court value of both Shved and Mbah a Moute outside of Timberwolves fans. So let’s take a deeper look at what each player will bring to the 2014-15 76ers…

Alexey Shved

After showing great promise in international basketball for a stretch of several years, Shved’s first two seasons in Minnesota were disappointing to say the least. The raw numbers from is career so far are extremely underwhelming averaging out at 6.5 ppg and 2.5 apg on 35.8% shooting and going 29.5% from 3. What is worrying was that he regressed even after having a poor rookie season, where his already-terrible field goal percentage of 37.2% plummeted all the way down to 32.1% last season.

The idea of bringing Shved to Minnesota was to pair Rubio with another young prospect that he could grow with, hopefully ending up with an effective backcourt that featured a highly entertaining brand of European basketball. This is just further proof that David Kahn really should’ve done more homework when putting together an NBA roster though, as Rubio and Shved are both essentially useless without the basketball in their hands (and if you’re choosing between who should be handling the ball of the two players, Rubio is the obvious choice).

Shved is one of the very worst spot-up shooters in the NBA, hitting on only 26.4% of such shots last season according to Synergy Sports. He is highly uncreative playing without the ball in his hands, spending most of his time standing completely stationary on the wings or in the corners waiting for the ball to come to him. [4] He rarely ran or utilized off-ball screens in order to get open, and when he did he would take these shots with a visible lack of confidence unless he was completely wide open. This is mostly the reason why he played so few minutes with Rubio, [5] where he would spend most possessions without ever touching the ball when the two played together (or when he did, making some highly questionable decisions with it).

Things didn’t change much for Shved when he shared the floor with Barea either. Although both players would often split the duty as being the offense’s primary ball handler, Shved was much worse when acting as the off-the-ball guard. Much like his time spent on the floor with Rubio, Shved would often get tunnel vision and make some pretty bad decisions whenever the ball ended up in his hands.

And while being significantly better when being used as the primary ball handler, Shved still wasn’t great in these situations. He played with a lot more confidence driving and shooting out of the pick-and-roll however, and quickly firing a 3 off a screen at the top of the key seemingly became a favorite move for him:

He looks comfortable doing it, yet only shot 24.1% on that shot, and 22.6% overall on all pick-and-roll plays according to Synergy. He would still try doing too much when playing with the ball in his hands, and though he played confidently, he would do so inefficiently.

Shved is a decent ball handler and passer, but has a tendency to become a bit ambitious with the ball often leading to clumsy turnovers. An argument can certainly be made that this may have come as a result of playing with and being compared to Rubio over the last two seasons, who is both a top-tier ball handler and passer. Shved is not nearly as skilled as Rubio is in these departments however, and typically fails whenever he tries to make a flashy play such as Rubio would.

And what makes things worse for Shved in this department is that he also really lacks any court vision, which makes for a pretty big problem if he’s supposed to be used as a primary ball handler. As I noted before, he plays with a lot of tunnel vision when handling the ball and often overlooks clearly better options. Defenders pick up easily on this as well, making it easy for them to stop him dead in his tracks before he can even get started.

Defensively, Shved is a disciplined and willing defender who can easily adapt to a system. His biggest problem on this end however is that he’s more of a tweener defensively; he’s not quite quick enough to guard the league’s more athletic point guards, but he also lacks both the length and the bulk required to guard most shooting guards. Effort is not the issue in this department as he always hustles to get the job done, but he ends up being a net minus defensively.

So yeah… Shved hasn’t exactly been great, and the potential that is constantly attached to his name may be a bit overstated. He’ll need to learn to play much more patiently and smarter on the offensive end, and he’ll really have to work hard to ever become even an average defender. But he’ll also only cost Philly $3.3 million this season, [6] and is a project worth taking on as a small speck in the 2014-15 Sixers’ endless sea of cap space. It'll be interesting to see how Brett Brown squeezes him into the rotation with Michael Carter-Williams, Tony Wroten, Casper Ware (if he stays on the team), and Elliot Williams already on board.

Luc Richard Mbah a Moute

Mbah a Moute comes in being heavily advertised as a defensive specialist, although he might be a bit overrated on that end. Mostly as a result of Minnesota’s severe lack of wing defenders last season, Mbah a Moute often found himself pinned on the opposing team’s best player whenever he hit the floor. This worked well against most forwards, but he lacks the explosiveness required to keep up with a lot of guards in the league. He could easily get taken off the dribble at times, and struggled against quicker players such as James Harden and Mike Miller (wait, what?).

But again, this wasn’t much of a problem against forwards, and Mbah a Moute probably won’t be defending too many guards in Philly as the focus will be on the younger wings to try to polish their skills in this department. And although he’s just 6’8", Mbah a Moute has the bulk to handle many power forwards in the league and will allow Brett Brown to use him as a power forward in smaller lineups.

Mbah a Moute is also one of the league’s more intelligent wing defenders: he’s very fluent when thrown into pick-and-rolls, positions himself nearly perfectly in passing lanes, and communicates extremely well with his teammates. These are all qualities that will hopefully rub off on Philadelphia’s young wings such as K.J. McDaniels and Hollis Thompson. Mbah a Moute is also a complete harasser defensively, constantly moving his feet while on the ball and keeping the ball handler thinking twice about driving on him. When fully engaged, he has the potential to be an absolute monster on this end.

But as you probably are already aware, Mbah a Moute doesn’t bring much to the table in terms of offensive production. He’s an absolutely dreadful shooter, which can cause for some real spacing problems, and doesn’t offer much else on this end of the floor. The one bright spot in his game however is the ability to cut backdoor off the ball, a quality that Thad excelled in. If he’s able to cut his way into the paint, he has the strength and a decent enough touch around the rim to bully his defender for a bucket down low.

But at age 27 (28 in September), Mbah a Moute’s on-court development is surely not much of a concern to the 76ers right now. The one intangible trait that he brings however might possibly be the most valuable acquisition in this trade, which is his close relationship with Joel Embiid. As Drew Garrison pointed out earlier today, Mbah a Moute might have been the biggest influence in Embiid’s basketball career as of yet. Mbah a Moute essentially discovered Embiid at a basketball camp held in Cameroon in 2011, helped him enroll in American high school to play basketball, gave advice on his decision to attend Kansas, and eventually, with the help of Bill Self, convinced Embiid to make the jump to the NBA.

A common criticism against many one-and-done college players is that they enter the NBA with little sense of maturity and can tend to ignore their new teammates as role models and mentors. Mbah a Moute will surely continue his role as Embiid’s mentor in Philadelphia, and there is no doubt that this was Hinkie’s key motive in adding Mbah a Moute in the deal. Mbah a Moute is on Philadelphia’s books for just one season for $4.4 million, but giving the team’s most prized possession a person to help him grow as both a basketball player and a person right out the gate may certainly be worth much more than that. We have yet to see whether Shved will ever reach his potential or if Miami’s first-round pick will ever amount to a useful player. But as of right now, it already looks like Hinkie has once again made the best move possible.