Before we go any further, understand that I endorsed the move when the Sixers traded Patrick Beverley and Marcus Morris Sr.

This isn’t an “I-told-you-so” column. This is a “You-should-be-smarter-than-me” column.

Daryl Morey is, in most areas, much smarter than I am. That’s why he makes $12 million a year, which is at least twice as much as me, and that’s why he never should have done what I would have done.

I applauded on Feb. 8 when the Sixers sent Pat Bev to Milwaukee for Cam Payne and sent Morris to the Spurs in a three-team deal that landed them Buddy Hield from Indiana.

“I feel like we got the best player at the trade deadline that was traded,” Morey said at the time.

“Love the Buddy Hield trade,” I tweeted, along with a poll, in which 161 like-minded souls agreed with me and Big D.

We were all so naive.

Blinded by Hield’s 16.1-point scoring average in his first seven full seasons, smitten by his 40.2% three-point percentage, we ignored his deficiencies — he can’t create his own shot, and his defense makes James Harden look like Dennis Rodman — because the Bahamian Bomber was the answer to our fevered, analytic-fueled dreams.

Payne? Well, he’d been to the NBA Finals with the Suns. Maybe not “the best player at the trade deadline that was traded,” but he had playoff DNA, baby.

Whatever.

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