So any Sixers fan with the slightest hint of a moral compass can breathe a sigh of relief.
It was reported earlier today by Matt Moore, also known as HPBasketball on X, that the Sixers could potentially be linked to free agent Miles Bridges.
“They’ve been linked to [Paul] George for months, with speculation only increasing after George appeared on ESPN’s pre-game show with [Joel] Embiid. So, George and [Jimmy] Butler are the two high-profile names. The Sixers are also expected to have interest in Charlotte Hornets forward Miles Bridges.”
As a member of the Charlotte Hornets, Bridges averaged 21 points per game last season along with 7.3 rebounds and 3.3 assists.
More importantly, Bridges pled no contest to a domestic violence charge on Nov. 3, 2022 stemming from an incident the previous summer. After sitting out the entire 2022-23 season, Bridges was arrested again in October of 2023 for violating his parole.
His status as a cheap reclamation project does fit the bill of a player Sixers’ president of basketball operations Daryl Morey would be interested.
Liberty Ballers’ own Paul Hudrick threw cold water on that report, however. Hudrick said that “a source familiar with the team’s thinking says they are not expected to pursue Bridges.”
There’s been some recent reporting linking the Sixers to Miles Bridges. A source familiar with the team’s thinking says they are not expected to pursue Bridges.
Any team that brings in a player with such a troubled past will need to answer a lot of questions to their fanbase. At least it looks like that won’t be the Sixers’ problem.
That’s a wrap on the NBA Season, and the dreaded Boston Celtics fans get to party in the streets for the 13th time since 1957.
If the Sixers want to beat a team with as much top-end firepower as the team that Danny Ainge (now with the Jazz, although he did most of the heavy lifting here), Mike Zarren and current President Brad Stevens have built, they’re going to need major reinforcements.
The name at the top of Daryl Morey’s wishlist is Clippers’ star Paul George. PG has a player option for the coming season worth $48.7M.
But we heard reports earlier this season that Steve Ballmer, by far the NBA’s richest owner worth an estimated $129.7B, was hesitant to allow his front office to offer PG more money than Kawhi Leonard on a potential extension.
Leonard, the two-time NBA Finals MVP, is the Clippers best player when healthy. But as Sixers fans know all too well, that “when healthy” distinction is kind of a big asterisk. PG, now 34, isn’t exactly an exemplar of perfect health himself, but he was the safer bet than Leonard to be healthy by playoff time. And he seems like the safer bet for the next three-four seasons as well.
On ESPN’s “Get UP” Monday, insider Brian Windhorst speculated on the latest from Clipperville:
“What is interesting to me is that is that the Clippers are very aware that somebody is going to offer [George] a four-year max contract. Whether that’s the 76ers or the Magic or a team could even trade for him. But there’s another thing with Paul George that I want to point out. He has an option in his contract. It’s known as ‘The Chris Paul Move.’ Where you come to a team and say ‘I’m either going to sign with this team over here, or you’re gonna pick up my option and trade me there.’ So even if you don’t have cap space, a team for example, like the New York Knicks. Okay, if they wanted Paul George they could say ‘okay, you could come to us, we’ll trade for you.’ You don’t have to sign him outright. Clippers know all this is gonna go on. And yet they’re still not making this offer. They’re still not [inaudible] to do this. And so if you get to July 1st, and the Clippers have done this, they’re gonna play hardball, that’s when you know he’s truly gonna be in the market. I suspect the Clippers read, at least on June 17th, is that they’re calling his bluff. They don’t actually think he’s gonna leave his hometown of L.A. to go to Philly or Orlando or some thing like that.”
This stalemate would seem to have begun back in January.
The Clippers essentially drew a line in the sand implying PG wasn’t deserving of what Kawhi was (three years, $152M) received last January, offering him less on an extension. PG wisely scoffed at the insulting, paltry bid. Now that miscalculation may bite them.
If George opts out, he is eligible to sign a four-year deal (the NBA’s “Over 38” rule forbids teams from offering him a fifth year) max deal worth up to roughly $221.1M. Possessing George’s Bird Rights, the Clips can offer the nine-time All-Star 8 percent raises, while all other teams can only offer 5 percent raises.
That means the Sixers can “only” offer George $212.5M over the same deal. Still, it’s only an $8.6M difference.
As one might expect in any ongoing negotiation, the PG-to-Philly barometer has swung a few times lately. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski back in May reported that, “The Clippers are determined to keep Paul George and James Harden in free agency, and the organization will move into the new, state-of-the-art Intuit Dome for the start of next season.”
But Windy is, more recently at least, singing a different tune.
Examining that Chris Paul opt-in-and-trade scenario (the kind Daryl Morey, while in Houston, once famously executed to rescue Chris Paul from Doc Rivers the Clips), with an expanding salary cap, it does seem PG could make more money long-term by opting in.
But he’d have to wait six months, and if any player knows that catastrophic injuries can occur, it’s PG, who broke his leg in multiple places back in 2014 during USA Team play.
If I were deciding between $212M today or waiting I’m not sure I’d want to risk playing from November through January for the additional ~$12M. Additionally, PG could learn the “Carmelo Anthony” lesson, and try to avoid depleting whichever new team he wants to play for of precious draft assets they’d need later to beat the Celtics.
So the best news here is that it appears the Clippers are still playing hardball with George. They’ve done nothing to suggest thus far that they feel he’s worth every penny of a max deal. As stellar as the quintessential triple-threat-3-and-D wing has been, with a new arena set to open, deciding he couldn’t make as much as Leonard, now trying to catch a bluff? It’s all pretty weird. Imagine how Kawhi would feel if they wound up letting him walk for nothing in return?
Is there any chance they’re pulling a bit of a 2023 version of the Morey-with-Harden, and sending these silent signals in hopes he opts in, so that they can make a blockbuster move? Unlike Beard, PG has max offers elsewhere tempting him not to do that.
The less good news for the Sixers here is this idea that PG could ultimately make more money by opting in, which could give him incentive to listen to pitches from contenders without cap space. Yuck.
The Sixers can spend up to $65M in cap. But if other teams can trade for him — with plans to extend him come January for even more than the max he’ll command in July — well, you can see the problem there. Miami? Cleveland? New York?
George, a CAA client shares an agent with Knicks’ star Jalen Brunson. The Knicks have been linked to PG in some reports too.
If PG felt Brunson is a safer bet than Embiid to be healthy come next year’s playoffs… maybe that throws a monkeywrench in the works for Morey — even if things fall apart with PG and the Clips.
But let’s focus on the good news for today. The Clippers appear to think that PG won’t leave, they certainly aren’t rolling out any red carpets like Morey is, and are perhaps “calling a bluff.” That would, I’d argue, mark the second time they’ve insulted him in five months. First, by deciding he’s not worth what Leonard was last January, and again now, knowing that other teams are prepared to drop a full stack, while they quibble over an amount that equates to about 0.17% of Ballmer’s total net worth.
Well, the day after some team won the NBA Finals, there is a bit of Sixers slop … though maybe not the slop fans were hoping for.
The team reportedly worked out 2015 first-round pick Sam Dekker, per John Clark of NBC Sports Philadelphia.
Dekker starred for a Wisconsin team that lost the 2015 national title game to Jahlil Okafor and Duke. Since being drafted by Daryl Morey — then with the Houston Rockets — Dekker has been unable to find solid footing in the NBA. He’s spent a good chunk of his pro career overseas, playing in Russia, Turkey and most recently in England. He was actually named the British Basketball League’s MVP for the 2022-23 season.
A 6-foot-9 forward, Dekker had NBA stints with the Rockets, Los Angeles Clippers, Cleveland Cavaliers and Washington Wizards. He also had a cup of coffee in Toronto to start the 2021-22 season. The Raptors’ head coach at the time: Nick Nurse. Nurse also has plenty of experience coaching in the BBL, where Dekker most recently played.
Beyond connections with the current Sixers team, it is an outside-the-box idea to work out a player that showed so much promise but frankly hasn’t been good enough to stick in the league. Dekker, now 30, is athletic, long and skilled, but his shot has been inconsistent as a pro. He hit 35.5% of his threes for the London Lions this season, but didn’t shoot it as well the previous couple years.
For now, this is just a workout, but it’s easy to see why this is an avenue Morey is exploring. While the Sixers could have upwards of $65 million in cap space and multiple draft picks to move, if they’re able to land a big fish — hello, Paul George — Morey will have to get creative to fill out the rest of the roster. Signing someone like Dekker to a minimum contract would certainly be creative. Only time will tell if it’d be effective.
The Celtics are about to win the NBA Finals. Who cares?
The most important thing to happen ahead of Game 4 was Joel Embiid popping on NBA Countdown on ESPN — seated next to potential free-agent-to-be Paul George.
Social media was abuzz as soon as that picture went live. George, a nine-time All-Star, has a player option with the Clippers for the 2024-25 season. If he declines that option, he’ll hit free agency. If that happens, the Sixers are expected to be the top team after his services.
When Embiid spoke, he made sure to let everyone know how he felt about the basketball team from Boston:
Embiid has been steadfast over the years in saying that he doesn’t want to meddle with what the team’s front office is doing. But when the opportunity presented itself, he seemingly made a not-so-subtle pitch to George on live television. Below is a zoomed in look at the video above.
Embiid is a former MVP. One of the best players on the planet. Even at his size, there are few things he can’t do on a basketball court.
But subtlety has never been his strength.
For many Sixers fans, this is likely a welcomed sight (depending on how you feel about the team signing George). Embiid basically saying on ESPN, “Hey, Daryl, this is the player we should get!” is quite the departure from his previous offseason approaches.
For what it’s worth, George has admired Embiid from afar and the two have developed a relationship. Just this past season, George gushed about Embiid on his podcast, calling the big man this generation’s version of Shaquille O’Neal.
The funny thing is you would think Tyrese Maxey, who grew up in Garland, Texas, would be there in Dallas to join the recruitment wagon. Alas, Maxey appears to be in Paris for an event with New Balance. Perhaps Maxey joined Embiid and George for a late-night FaceTime call.
While we shouldn’t get too far ahead of ourselves, Embiid being in Dallas at the NBA Finals while George is also there feels mighty purposeful.
As we all watch in disgust as the Celtics look set to win the NBA Finals, a sliver of offseason slop might provide a small boost to Sixers fans’ spirits.
ESPN NBA insider Brian Windhorst shared a nugget that could leave the door open to nine-time All-Star Paul George coming to Philly in free agency. As a guest on the Pat McAfee Show earlier this week, Windhorst said that George and the Clippers “have swapped numbers, and they’re not on the same page.”
As Windy notes in the clip above, the two sides could’ve reached an agreement at any time and failed to do so. Kawhi Leonard signed an extension with L.A. way back in January for three years and a shade below $150 million. Notably, that was not a max contract extension for Leonard. Perhaps the Clippers are hoping to get George to agree to a similar deal while the six-time All-NBA selection knows that there will be max offers waiting for him in free agency.
In any case, it does leave the door cracked open for the Sixers, the first team Windhorst mentions as a George suitor. Windy also spoke about the potential of a sign-and-trade between the Clippers and Sixers, which could lead to a few intriguing scenarios for Daryl Morey and company.
While all indications are that PG-13 is the Sixers’ Plan A, their Plan B might not involve free agents at all. If they fail to sign George, a trade is the next possible outcome, per Windhorst.
“If they don’t get [George], where’s the Sixers’ money going? What are they going to do with it? Not necessarily sign players, I think the actual big transactions this summer will be trades — teams taking on salary in trades. Philly, potentially, if they don’t get Paul George, [could] try to trade for guys into their cap space.”
The two biggest names potentially on the trade market are old friend Jimmy Butler and the Pelicans’ Brandon Ingram. If you’ll recall, Windhorst linked the Sixers to all three of George, Butler and Ingram literally the day after the team was eliminated by the Knicks in Game 6.
Remember, in the new CBA, teams are allowed to speak with their free agents the day after the NBA Finals — unlike last season when the whole “Daryl Morey is a liar” James Harden fiasco went down. So, we should get a decent idea where George and the Clippers stand once Boston finishes off Dallas (maybe the only reason to look forward to that series ending).
The NBA Draft is also less than two weeks away. As Windy notes, things could get spicy when the first round starts on Wednesday, June 26.
“We might actually see the biggest action around the draft. … That’s the beginning of trade season and who knows? You might see action with Paul George — whether it’s him getting traded somewhere or him just deciding to stay with the Clippers.”
