The Philadelphia 76ers made a move on Thursday as they acquired veteran George Hill from the Oklahoma City Thunder. It is a solid move in the grand scheme of things as he is a proven veteran who can help the Sixers right now on their quest for a title.

However, while Hill is a solid acquisition, it did appear for some time that the Sixers were going to zero in on Toronto Raptors guard Kyle Lowry.

There were reports early Thursday morning that Toronto had an asking price from Philadelphia for Lowry and the Sixers and the Raptors were progressing towards a deal. Per Rogers Sportsnet’s Michael Grange, Philadelphia was at the one-yard line in getting a deal done to acquire Lowry.

Alas, the Sixers did not acquire Lowry, they acquired Hill and it’s still a solid option. Hill is a career 38.7% shooter from deep and he plays defense well enough to be known as a two-way player at the point guard spot.

“I can’t specifically address a player on another team, but obviously, at the trade deadline, you have lots of options,” said Morey. “There’s a lot of speculation about options that are out there. All I can say is, we’re very excited about the option we ended up with. I think we did the deal about two hours before the deadline and we took an option that we thought really upgraded our team this year on both ends.”

The asking price from Toronto was a bit steep. The Raptors were asking for rookie Tyrese Maxey as well as second-year guard Matisse Thybulle along with two first-round picks in exchange for Lowry who turned 35 on Thursday. The 2019 NBA champion is also set to enter free agency and was looking for an extension.

“We also kept all of our important assets going forward,” Morey added. We really felt good about this option. It allows us to really upgrade our team for the playoff wars to come and at the same time, keep all our bullets if an option in the future becomes available.”

While Hill is no spring chicken at 34-years old, he has another year on his contract for the 2021-22 season so Philadelphia knows he will be with the team next season. All of those factors made it a bit risky to give up all of those assets in order to bring in a guy who could leave at the end of the season.

“We kept our optionality alive for the future,” Morey finished. “If George Hill becomes an integral part of this team, we think he will, we have the option to keep him and not have him go to free agency.”

In the meantime, the Sixers will take on the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday at Staples Center at 10 p.m. EST.

This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!