The Philadelphia 76ers are off to a surprisingly strong start to the 2023-24 NBA season. Rather than letting James Harden’s offseason trade request derail them, they sent him to the Los Angeles Clippers on Halloween and have rattled off a 16-7 record, putting them only 1.5 games behind the Boston Celtics for the top spot in the Eastern Conference.

Ahead of the Sixers’ 129-111 demolition of the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday, team president Daryl Morey told John Kincade of 97.5 The Fanatic that he isn’t feeling complacent despite their early-season success.

“We feel very good where we’re at,” Morey said. “We’re not complacent. We know we need to keep playing better, keep improving. Hopefully add someone maybe significant as well with all the draft picks we have now. We do feel like this is the year we need to focus on.”

With reigning MVP Joel Embiid arguably playing better than ever—he’s averaging a league-best 33.8 points on 52.3% shooting, 11.5 rebounds, a career-high 6.4 assists and 1.8 blocks in only 34.4 minutes per game across 20 appearances—Morey said he didn’t take it for granted. “This year is a super important year,” he added.

The Sixers now have three future first-round picks and six second-round picks that they can offer in trades, along with around $80 million in expiring contracts. However, Morey didn’t make it sound as though any deals are imminent.

“Especially around December, teams don’t usually make big moves,” he said. “Nick Nurse is already having trouble figuring out who to play from night to night just ’cause we’ve got a lot of really good vets, all who deserve to play. And so if we’re gonna add someone, it’s gotta be someone pretty good, who’s better than our first eight or nine guys, which is not easy to do at this point.”

Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, De’Anthony Melton, Tobias Harris and Nicolas Batum appear to be locked in as the Sixers’ every-night starters, while Kelly Oubre Jr., Patrick Beverley and Paul Reed have settled into consistent reserve roles. Marcus Morris Sr. and Robert Covington are in a quiet tournament for the No. 9 rotation spot, while Danuel House Jr., Jaden Springer, Furkan Korkmaz, Mo Bamba and KJ Martin can fill in as needed, too.

The Sixers could tinker around the margins of their roster without giving up their entire cache of draft picks, but Morey seems far more focused on bolstering their playoff rotation. However, he made it clear that he doesn’t feel pressure to make a move just for the sake of making a move.

“We’re always looking to upgrade, but we’re not gonna force anything if it’s not there,” Morey said.

Chicago Bulls guard Zach LaVine and Toronto Raptors forwards Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby would be clear upgrades in that regard, but it’s unclear which of them will become available by the Feb. 8 trade deadline and what their respective teams will want in return. The Sixers have the ability to create more than $55 million in salary-cap space this offseason, so they’ll need to balance their potential options in free agency with any trades they might pursue before then.

If the Sixers can’t make a marquee splash ahead of the trade deadline, they could instead look for some potentially less expensive options. Pistons wing Bojan Bogdanovic might be the best of both worlds in that regard. He came into Wednesday’s game averaging 17.5 points per game across only four appearances, and he scored a season-high 33 points on 11-of-19 shooting against the Sixers, including a 5-of-9 clip from deep.

Bogdanovic has never been a plus defender, but between Embiid, Melton, Covington and Beverley, the Sixers have the personnel to cover up his mistakes on that end of the floor. His contract should be particularly appealing to them, too. He’s making a reasonable $20 million this year, and only $2 million of his $19.0 million salary for the 2024-25 season is guaranteed for now. (The rest becomes fully guaranteed on June 29.)

If the Pistons decide to shop Bogdanovic ahead of the trade deadline, the Sixers could use Morris as their main salary-matching chip and include either Springer or Martin along with draft compensation for him. The devil will be in the details regarding the latter, though.

According to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype, the Pistons “passed on trading Bogdanovic for two first-round picks from a contender last season,” while Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports reported they “maintained a steep asking price of a first-round pick and a prized young player” ahead of last year’s trade deadline. Although the Pistons are currently riding a 21-game losing streak, they “have expressed that it would take a large offer” to acquire Bogdanovic between now and the Feb. 8 trade deadline, according to Fred Katz of The Athletic.

The Sixers would make Embiid and Maxey untouchable in trade talks for a player of Bogdanovic’s caliber, and they’d likely have scant interest in even including Melton. They’re devoid of prized young players beyond that unless Springer and/or Martin fit the bill, and it’s hard to imagine them offering the Los Angeles Clippers’ unprotected 2028 first-round pick unless it’s in a package for a star. However, they could offer either their own 2026 or 2029 first-round picks or a 2026 first-rounder from either the Clippers, Houston Rockets or Oklahoma City Thunder (whichever is worst).

While Morey plans to pursue upgrades over the coming weeks, he likes his squad’s chances against some of the top teams in the East as is.

“Especially with Boston, I thought they did some really good offseason moves,” he said. “But when we watch them, and we’ve played them quite a few times as well, we see a team that we can beat. Obviously, they’re very good. They’re gonna be a very tough series if we get the chance to face them. But we do see them as a team we could beat. We don’t see them as Golden State circa 2017 or whatever. Milwaukee as well. Obviously, we’ve only played them once, but we feel again like that’s a team we could beat.”

The trade market will begin to pick up steam after Dec. 15, which is when most players who signed with teams in free agency this past offseason become trade-eligible. However, the Sixers likely won’t jump into the trade pool until after the new year since they can’t aggregate Morris, Covington, Batum or Martin with any other contracts until after Jan. 1.

Given their optionality regarding both trades and free agency this coming offseason, it would be fairly shocking to see the Sixers make a move well before the trade deadline. Unless they can acquire someone for far less than expected, their hopes of adding a “significant” player might have to wait until late January or early February.