Report: Furkan Korkmaz requested trade from 76ers

The 76ers declined Furkan Korkmaz’s third-year team option for next season, making him an unrestricted free agent next summer.

He apparently wants to leave Philadelphia even sooner.

Keith Pompey of The Inquirer:

Sources have said the Turkish player requested to be traded because of lack of playing time.

“If I’m not getting minutes here, I just want to look for other options,” he said. “I don’t know what’s the options right now, just try to be on the court.”

“I feel like I didn’t really have that opportunity,” he said of receiving a fair opportunity. “Last year, I was injured for a long time and this year just a couple of games in the garbage time. It wasn’t like good rotation minutes for me. That’s why I feel like I didn’t get that opportunity to show on the court what I got.”

This is very normal. Most players who aren’t in the rotation believe they didn’t get a fair shake and want to be traded.

From the outside, it seems Korkmaz has gotten a fair opportunity. Philadelphia trying to win now. He’s a 21-year-old who must get stronger. It’s a tough fit.

But he possesses intriguing tools, and teams looking more toward the future could use him.

The catch: Any team that trades for Korkmaz and ends the season with him could re-sign him for a starting salary only up to his declined option amount ($2,033,160). So, if a team gets Korkmaz and he breaks out, that team would have a significant disadvantage in keeping him. Better to just wait and try to sign him next summer.

The 76ers got themselves into this predicament by declining Korkmaz’s option. Perhaps, waiting until the Oct. 31 deadline and hoping for the best was their best course. Just because it backfired doesn’t mean it was the wrong plan.

But there probably would have been a better trade market for Korkmaz, a first-round pick just two years ago, earlier in the summer. Perhaps, a team would have traded for Korkmaz intending to exercise his third-year option.

Except Philadelphia didn’t have a general manager throughout the offseason after ousting Bryan Colangelo. This seems like the type of non-move that could slip through the cracks.

So, Korkmaz might be stuck – unless his expiring contract proves useful in a trade or he finds a team that believes in him, but not too much.