Tag: 76ers-free-agency-rumors-news

2024 NBA free agency: Sixers to reportedly sign veteran wing Caleb Martin away from Heat; waive Paul Reed nba,free,agency,sixers,to,reportedly,sign,veteran,wing,caleb,martin,away,from,heat,waive,paul,reed,liberty,ballers,front-page,nba-free-agency,76ers-free-agency-rumors-news

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The Sixers aren’t done yet.

The team will reportedly sign veteran wing Caleb Martin to a four-year, $32 million deal. To gain the necessary cap space, the Sixers will waive Paul Reed. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski was the first to report the signing and Reed being waived. The final year of Martin’s deal is a player option, per Michael Scotto of HoopsHype.

In Martin, the Sixers get a battle-tested and versatile wing. He averaged a career-best 10.0 point per game last season, though the volatility with Miami’s roster likely contributed to a drop in efficiency. He shot just 43.1% from the field and 34.9% from deep, his lowest marks since 2020-21.

Though Martin has consistently raised his level of play in the postseason. His best stretch might’ve occurred during the Heat’s surprising run to the Finals in 2023. He averaged 12.7 points per game that postseason on 65.7% true shooting. He saved his best performances for the Eastern Conference Finals, where he averaged 19.3 points in seven games against the Boston Celtics. Across 28 playoff games the past two seasons, Martin has averaged 12.5 points per game on 51.8/42.6/85.0 shooting splits.

Aside from the offense, Martin is a super versatile defender. At 6-foot-5 and with a 6-foot-10 wingspan, he’s capable of guarding one through four. That could be key for the Sixers as the roster currently lacks any real players that fit the four position. Martin is plenty capable of scaling up. With Martin, Paul George and Kelly Oubre, Jr., the Sixers’ potential starting group features a switchable and talented defensive trio of wings.

As simplistic as it sounds, Martin is able to dribble, pass, shoot and defend. Oftentimes it’s felt like the Sixers had so many players who were specialists of some kind. Martin offers plenty of versatility in a sport that’s becoming increasingly positionless.

Martin, who went to NC State before transferring to Nevada, is now 28 years old. He spent his first two seasons with the Charlotte Hornets before spending the last three in Miami. His twin brother, Cody, is currently with the Hornets.

For the Sixers and Reed, it’s surely a little bittersweet. The big man from DePaul was a draft success story for the team. Reed was the third-to-last pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, signed a two-way deal with the Sixers and went on to win the G League Rookie of the Year and MVP. After a successful postseason run in 2023, Reed signed an offer sheet with the Utah Jazz that the Sixers matched. After a difficult season in 2023-24, a clause in the contract that was meant to hurt the Sixers actually helped them. With the team failing to make the second round, Reed’s $7.7 million cap hit became non-guaranteed.

All the Sixers’ reported moves, including their agreement with Paul George, can become official starting at 12:01 p.m. Saturday. With Martin, the team will have nine players either officially under contract or agreed to terms. Second-round pick Adem Bona would make 10. Expect a bunch of minimum deals to come shortly.

2024 NBA free agency: After aggressive start, it feels like Morey is being patient in filling out Sixers roster nba,free,agency,after,aggressive,start,it,feels,like,morey,is,being,patient,in,filling,out,sixers,roster,liberty,ballers,front-page,76ers-free-agency-rumors-news

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Unless you’ve been living under a rock the last few days, you know the Sixers have been quite busy.

They worked quickly at the start of free agency to secure agreements from big man Andre Drummond and veteran bucket-getter Eric Gordon. They took care of some in-house business by re-signing Kelly Oubre, Jr., who gave the team strong minutes last season, and giving budding superstar Tyrese Maxey a well-deserved max extension. And, of course, they landed the biggest fish on the market agreeing to terms with Paul George on a max deal.

Since we got word that George would be joining Maxey, Joel Embiid and the Sixers, things have gotten quiet.

Almost too quiet.

The Sixers will reportedly lose the services of key role players Nicolas Batum and De’Anthony Melton. They’re also reportedly working on a sign-and-trade that will send Buddy Hield to the Warriors. Beyond that, there haven’t been many rumors about what the Sixers could do next.

That almost feels purposeful for Daryl Morey. After coming out of the gates aggressive, it seems like the long-time executive is waiting out the market, looking for his opportunity to pounce when the time is right.

As of now, the Sixers have eight players who are either signed or have reportedly agreed to terms. Embiid, Maxey, George, Drummond and Gordon will be here. Paul Reed’s deal is not guaranteed and it feels like his time in Philly could be nearing an end, whether it’s a trade or being waived. Ricky Council IV is also on a non-guaranteed deal, but there have been no indications the Sixers will look to move on from the young wing.

The team also has first-round pick Jared McCain and second-round pick Adem Bona, both of whom appear to be penciled in for standard NBA contracts. Factoring them in — and figuring Reed will not be here — it seems like the Sixers have nine players and six spots to fill. As of now, assuming Reed is waived and all the reported deals are accurate, the team will have roughly $8.9 million in cap space to use.

Who they could use that space on is complicated. There have been rumors about a possible trade for Nets forward Dorian Finney-Smith, but that appears unlikely to happen (at least right now). They’ve been connected to two Miami Heat forwards: Caleb Martin and former Sixer Haywood Highsmith. After that, you’re looking at veteran minimum deals to fill out the roster (a Dario Saric reunion, anyone?). There is also a strong likelihood Morey uses a CBA quirk to his advantage to give KJ Martin a balloon deal for the purposes of trading him during the season, as our Bryan Toporek shrewdly pointed out Tuesday morning.

If the Sixers went that route — waive Reed, sign Highsmith/Caleb Martin to a $6-8 million deal for 2024-25, then fill out the roster with minimum players and went ahead with that plan with KJ Martin — that would largely be seen as a great outcome.

But, Reed hasn’t been waived yet. Martin has not signed a balloon deal. There are also scant details about the Hield-to-Warriors sign-and-trade as of this posting.

Insert Brian Windhorst meme

Much has been made of the new CBA and the second apron becoming the new team-building boogeyman. Toporek, again, has been all over that angle for a while now for LB. The consensus seems to be the new rules are mostly hurting the NBA “middle class.” It’s almost like teams valuing threes and dunks — they want stars and cheap role players.

Why is this relevant? Well, perhaps Morey, with a bunch of roster spots to fill, sees the market drying up for these types of players and senses an opportunity to wait things out. Oubre didn’t sign until September last year and took a minimum deal because the market dried up. That seemed to work out quite well for the Sixers. This year, it feels like more players could fall into this category.

The other thought is that there are still major trades that could take place at any time. There’s been plenty of smoke around previously-reported Sixers target Brandon Ingram of the New Orleans Pelicans and Utah Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen. The Sixers are extremely unlikely to trade for either one this summer, but maybe they get in on the fallout of those deals.

Think about this: Jrue Holiday wasn’t traded to the Celtics until Oct. 1 of last year after the Damian Lillard-to-the-Bucks blockbuster. That’s not to say Morey should wait that long or that the player whom he could potentially acquire would be of that caliber. It’s simply to say sometimes a patient approach is the way to go.

Morey came out swinging to get George. Now, he appears to be biding his time to build out the ideal roster around his stars.

The first apron would complicate a Dorian Finney-Smith trade for the Sixers with the Nets the,first,apron,would,complicate,a,dorian,finney,smith,trade,for,the,sixers,with,the,nets,liberty,ballers,front-page,nba-free-agency,76ers-analysis,76ers-free-agency-rumors-news,76ers-trade-rumors

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Once the Sixers finalize their signing of Paul George, their $60-plus million in cap space will be a thing of the past. Based on current projections—which are fluid at this time of year—they’ll be left with roughly $8.9 million in cap space to spend if they waive Paul Reed while keeping Ricky Council IV on their books. (If they keep KJ Martin’s cap hold to perform some CBA shenanigans, they’d have $8.0 million.)

After the Sixers spend that cap space, sign Tyrese Maxey to his max contract, re-sign Kelly Oubre Jr. (presumably with the room mid-level exception) and fill out their roster with minimum contracts, they’ll be perilously close to the $178.1 million first apron. That’s something to keep in mind while proposing solutions to their current vacancy at power forward.

Brooklyn Nets forward Dorian Finney-Smith gained steam in recent days as a possible Sixers trade target, and Michael Scotto of HoopsHype poured gas on that fire earlier this week. He reported the Sixers have “exploratory interest” in trading for Finney-Smith, although he noted “nothing is considered imminent there.”

The NBA’s new collective bargaining agreement may be the main reason why.

Teams above the first apron can’t acquire more salary than they send out in trades, among other restrictions. The Sixers could be less than $1 million below the apron once they spend the rest of their cap space and fill out their roster with minimum deals from there. That means they’ll need to send out nearly as much salary as they take back in any trade.

Finney-Smith is earning $14.9 million this season. The only players whom the Sixers have under contract other than Embiid are Reed ($7.7 million) and Council ($1.9 million). The math isn’t mathing there.

The Sixers could arrange a sign-and-trade involving Martin, whose $2.1 million cap hold could be key to the rest of their offseason plans. However, Base Year Compensation issues might complicate any effort to move him before Jan. 15 if they give him a short-term balloon deal.

The Sixers’ reported “exploratory interest” in Finney-Smith might have been an inquiry about the Nets’ asking price if they don’t trade him until the deadline. At that point, any of the Sixers’ players who sign contracts this offseason will be eligible to be traded, which opens the door for a potential midseason shakeup.

The hard-cap rules still apply once the season begins, though. If the Sixers take back more salary than they send out in a trade, they’d get hard-capped at the first apron. They’ll still need to send out almost an equivalent amount of salary than they take back in any trade given their proximity to the first apron.

On the bright side, they wouldn’t run into BYC issues with Martin in a midseason deal. If they give him a two-year deal with a non-guaranteed second season—a contract basically designed to be traded—they could aggregate his salary with anyone else’s on the roster to acquire a player earning even more. The Sixers would be hard-capped at the second apron if they did aggregate contracts, but it’d be hard for them to reach that level of spending this year without wildly overpaying Martin (something like $20-plus million per season).

The TL;DR version: If the Sixers are going to acquire another player with an eight-figure contract, it seems far more likely to happen in-season—when they can aggregate the contracts they sign this summer, including multiple minimum deals—than it does over the rest of the offseason.

With cap space drying up around the league, the Sixers might prefer to wait out the market and see if they can find another Oubre-esque steal like they did last summer. If not, they can package some of the deals they sign this offseason for a midseason trade.

Either way, it’s encouraging to hear that the Sixers are sniffing around players such as Finney-Smith, Caleb Martin and Haywood Highsmith. That suggests they’ve correctly identified the glaring hole on their roster and are proactively working to address it.

That just might not happen right away, or even this offseason at all, much to fans’ chagrin. Like clockwork every year, team president Daryl Morey stresses that he’s less concerned with what the roster looks like in October than what it looks like April, May and June. He might be planning on pursing an upgrade at that spot at the trade deadline and doing some early information gathering.

In the meantime, go back to debating Martin vs. Highsmith, everyone.

2024 NBA free agency: Sixers interested in signing Marcus Morris nba,free,agency,sixers,interested,in,signing,marcus,morris,liberty,ballers,front-page,76ers-free-agency-rumors-news

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As NBA free agency continues, with various role players still up for grabs, the Sixers are looking to improve their forward depth. They’ve already had discussions with two Heat free agents in Caleb Martin and former Sixer Haywood Highsmith, and now another former Sixer has entered the mix.

As Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer has reported, the Sixers have expressed interest in signing Marcus Morris.

According to Pompey, the Pistons, Hornets, Cavaliers, Mavericks, Heat, and Timberwolves have also expressed some interest in Morris.

Morris spent 37 games with the Sixers last season, before being sent to San Antonio as part of the Buddy Hield trade. Morris was waived soon after and went on to sign with the Cavs for the rest of the season. During his short stretch in Philadelphia, Morris averaged 6.7 points and 2.9 rebounds with a 40 percent stroke from three in 17.2 minutes per game.

For a team that still needs help at the 4 and could benefit from having some extra size and shooting there, the 6-foot-8 Morris makes a little sense. He’s shot 40.3 percent from three over the last five years on solid volume, and could bring a touch of rebounding. But the positives pretty much run out there. At nearly 35 years of age, Morris is slowing down even more and was clearly an issue on defense with the Sixers already last season. He struggled to keep in front of anyone with much pace and failed to stay engaged and be in the right spots off the ball too often.

If Morris is just an end-of-bench piece for the regular season as a shooter with size, fine. He shouldn’t cost more than a minimum deal either. But if he’s being considered as a notable rotation piece or a candidate to play in the playoffs, the Sixers should look elsewhere at this point.

Both Martin and Highsmith are much better targets, with the latter having the ability to help play more at the 4. In terms of talent and general two-way reliability, there’s no doubt those two should be targeted over Morris.

2024 NBA Free Agency: Sixers have ‘had discussions’ with Caleb Martin nba,free,agency,sixers,have,had,discussions,with,caleb,martin,liberty,ballers,front-page,nba-free-agency,76ers-free-agency-rumors-news

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The Sixers didn’t wait long to make a major splash in NBA free agency by landing Paul George, and have only added to that with more solid moves like adding Andre Drummond and Eric Gordon.

Next, the Sixers are looking to further bolster their forward depth. As Barry Jackson and Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald have now reported, the Sixers have had discussions with Heat free agent Caleb Martin:

The 76ers have also had discussions with Heat free agent Caleb Martin as they scan the free-agent market for options to fill their roster, according to a league source. …

The most the Heat can currently offer Haywood [Highsmith] or Martin while remaining under the ultra-punitive second apron is a contract with a starting salary of about $7 million with a maximum of 8 percent raises each season.

If the Sixers waive Paul Reed, they can still create about $9.2 million in cap space, which should give them enough spending power to sign someone like Martin. With the Heat also interested in finding a way to sign DeMar DeRozan using their remaining cap space, the Sixers could well be set up to outbid them for Martin.

Martin is one of the best forwards left on the free agent market. He certainly makes plenty of sense to help fill out the Sixers’ roster and give them even more versatile, wing-heavy lineup options. He’s a solid perimeter defender who can switch across several positions, a pretty confident three-point shooter (even if he isn’t the most efficient at 35.3 percent over the last two seasons, following a 41.3 percent mark back in 2021-22), a decent rebounder for his size, and he’s capable of attacking closeouts and making extra connective passes.

He’s also shown up many times on the playoff stage for Miami, especially in last year’s Eastern Conference Finals.

While the 6-foot-5 Martin doesn’t bring a lot of size or viability to play much at the 4, which is a spot the Sixers still need more help at, the team is also interested in another free agent forward from the Heat: former Sixer Haywood Highsmith.

With good length and the ability to cover forwards and some guards, plus 39.6 percent three-point shooting last season, Highsmith has found his way in the NBA as a 3-and-D role player since leaving Philly. He just had what was easily the best year of his career, playing a notable role for the Heat in 20.7 minutes per game. Partner his key traits with his size at 6-foot-7 and experience playing the 4 in Miami, and he’d be a helpful addition in Philly. It looks like Highsmith could wind up being a bit too expensive for the Heat to keep, too.

Both players make sense as targets for the Sixers right now. Maybe they can even find a way to steal both! We should hear more soon enough.

2024 NBA free agency: Sixers reportedly ‘in discussion’ with free agent forward Haywood Highsmith nba,free,agency,sixers,reportedly,in,discussion,with,free,agent,forward,haywood,highsmith,liberty,ballers,front-page,nba-free-agency,76ers-free-agency-rumors-news

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Free agency rumors are beginning to heat back up! This latest report comes from Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer, who reports that Miami Heat free agent forward Haywood Highsmith is on the Sixers’ radar:

“The Sixers have interest in trading for Brooklyn Nets power forward Dorian Finny-Smith. They’ve also been in discussions with Miami Heat free agent and former Sixer Haywood Highsmith as a free-agent option. Houston Rockets free agent Reggie Bullock could be another option, but maybe for minimum salary.”

Pompey starts off by confirming the Sixers’ interest in Nets Forward Dorian Finny-Smith (first reported by Mike Scotto of HoopsHype). Kelly Iko of the Athletic first reported on Sixers’ interest in Reggie Bullock, but Haywood Highsmith is a new name on the radar.

OG Sixer (and Delaware Blue Coat) fans will remember Highsmith, who had a fascinating journey to get to this point. The Balitmore, Maryland product spent four years playing Division 2 basketball at Wheeling University, later declaring for the NBA Draft, going undrafted and being picked up by the Delaware Blue Coats.

Highsmith eventually played his way into a two-way contract with the Sixers during the 2018-19 season. He was later cut. After spending some more time in the G League, he earned his way onto the Miami Heat roster after several 10-day contracts where he’s been since.

Since his time with the Sixers, Highsmith has developed into a quality 3-and-D player, and has become a regular rotation player for the Heat. This past season, Highsmith averaged career-highs in games played, games started, minutes, field goal percentage, three-point percentage (39.6 percent on 2.9 attempts), assists, steals, blocks and points.

Highsmith’s stats probably don’t scream ‘SIGN HIM’ to most fans, but his advanced analytics do suggest he’s a better player than basic stats can tell. For example:

Highsmith is probably best as a rotation player than a full-time starting four, but on the right contract he makes a lot of sense for what the Sixers need. Speaking of contract, Pompey floated some numbers:

“Highsmith had career earnings of $4.2 million over his three NBA seasons. However, he could demand anywhere from $6 million to $8 million based on his improved play and impact as a role player. The Sixers are scouring for other options, but the 27-year-old Baltimore native could be a fallback option if the Sixers waive Reed.”

This range seems on par for what similar players have fetched in the open market. Numerous reports suggest the Heat are prioritizing re-signing Caleb Martin, which means Highsmith might get priced out as they look to save salary elsewhere.

The Sixers need some defensive-minded forwards around their big three of Tyrese Maxey, Paul George and Joel Embiid. We’ll see if the there’s a path towards the Sixers and Haywood Highsmith reuniting.

Liberty Ballers free agency livestream at 4 p.m. liberty,ballers,free,agency,livestream,at,p,m,liberty,ballers,front-page,76ers-free-agency-rumors-news

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Hello, Liberty Ballers community!

We’ll be hosting a livestream on Playback starting at 4 p.m. Drew Peltzman and I (Paul Hudrick) will break down the signings of Paul George, Andre Drummond, Eric Gordon and so much more. Please feel free to hop in the chat with any questions you might have. Would love to hear from all of you!

Check out the stream below starting at 4 p.m.!

Updated Sixers 2024-25 roster as NBA free agency continues updated,sixers,roster,as,nba,free,agency,continues,liberty,ballers,front-page,nba-free-agency,76ers-free-agency-rumors-news

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With the NBA Draft having come and gone as well as free agency now underway, it might be hard to keep up with who is actually on the Philadelphia 76ers roster right now. Not to worry, we have you covered.

Stay up to date with the Sixers roster with this post that we will be updating as things continue to develop and change!

Current Sixers’ standard roster (8 of 15 filled)

Joel Embiid, C

Andre Drummond, C

Paul Reed, PF/C*

Paul George, SF

Kelly Oubre Jr., SF

Ricky Council IV, SF**

Tyrese Maxey, PG

Eric Gordon, SG

Current Sixers’ two-way contracts (2 of 3 filled)

David Jones, SF (undrafted free agent, Memphis)

Justin Edwards, SF (undrafted free agent, Kentucky)

Current unsigned draft picks (2)

Jared McCain, SG (2024 NBA Draft, first round pick)***

Adem Bona, C (2024 NBA Draft, second round pick)****

Current Sixers’ free agents

(Only includes those not yet reportedly signing elsewhere)

Robert Covington, F (UFA)

Buddy Hield, G (UFA)

Kyle Lowry, G (UFA)

KJ Martin, F (UFA)

Cameron Payne, G (UFA)

*Reed’s $7.7 million deal is not guaranteed for 2024-25

**Council’s $1.9 million deal is not guaranteed for 2024-25

***McCain is likely to be given a standard NBA contract for $4.0 for 2024-25

****Bona is likely to be given the final two-way spot, but could also be signed using the second-round exception

2024 NBA free agency: How the Sixers should exploit KJ Martin’s cheap cap hold after landing Paul George nba,free,agency,how,the,sixers,should,exploit,kj,martin,s,cheap,cap,hold,after,landing,paul,george,liberty,ballers,front-page,76ers-analysis,76ers-free-agency-rumors-news

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The Sixers made their big free-agent splash overnight Monday, agreeing with Paul George on a four-year, $211.6 million maximum contract. They’ve also agreed to re-sign Kelly Oubre Jr. (two years, $16.3 million), Andre Drummond (two years, “$10-plus million”) and Eric Gordon (one year, $3.3 million veteran minimum), which means they’ve already burned through most of their spending power this offseason.

From here, the Sixers must get creative to round out their roster. KJ Martin might be their best lottery ticket in that regard.

Martin is an unrestricted free agent, but he has a tiny $2.1 million cap hold, and the Sixers have his full Bird rights. They’d slightly cut into their cap space if they kept him on their books instead of an incomplete roster charge ($1.15 million), but having Bird rights on him allows them to re-sign him to anything up to his max salary.

The Sixers could take advantage of that cheap cap hold to both their own benefit and Martin’s. They could keep it on their books, spend the rest of their cap space and then overpay him on a two-year contract with a non-guaranteed second season. They could later look to flip him as salary filler in a midseason trade.

The Indiana Pacers gave Bruce Brown a two-year, $45 million contract last offseason, only to ship him to the Toronto Raptors six months later in the package for Pascal Siakam. The Sixers were reportedly open to emulating that strategy with Klay Thompson and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope this offseason if they struck out on George, according to Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports.

Martin could enable them to do a miniature version of it.

If the Sixers had a specific midseason target in mind, they could do an exact dollar-for-dollar match on Martin’s new contract. That would enable both the Sixers and the other team to trade those contracts in a straight one-for-one deal and not trigger a hard cap. If they were instead just looking to add a tradable contract to their books, they could use the dollar amount of the taxpayer mid-level exception ($5.168 million), room MLE ($7.983 million) or non-taxpayer MLE ($12.822 million) as options.

The Sixers could try to sign-and-trade Martin if they’re looking to fill that void more quickly, although as cap specialist Yossi Gozlan noted, Base Year Compensation rules would complicate that. Only 50 percent of Martin’s new contract would count as outgoing salary, which would make it more difficult for the Sixers or whichever team trades for him to avoid triggering a hard cap at the first apron. They’d be better off signing Martin to a balloon deal and preserving his contract for a midseason trade.

The only downside to this strategy is if the Sixers plan to hard-cap themselves at either apron with another move. They won’t be adding unnecessary salary to their books in that case. Otherwise, there’s no reason not to do this. They’re going to be over the luxury-tax threshold when they fill out their roster either way, so they might as well go deeper into it to increase their midseason flexibility.

Without Martin factored in, the Sixers can still create roughly $9.2 million in remaining cap space even if they keep Ricky Council IV ($1.9 million) but waive Paul Reed’s $7.7 million non-guaranteed contract. If they keep Martin’s cap hold as well, they could still have around $8.3 million in cap space. Based on the prices for Derrick Jones Jr. (three years, $30 million), Naji Marshall (three years, $27 million) Goga Bitadze (three years, $25 million) and Gary Harris (two years, $14 million), that should be able to net them at least one more solid player.

Once the Sixers used the rest of their cap space, they’d use a minimum exception to sign Gordon, officially sign Tyrese Maxey to his five-year, $203.9 million extension (without a player option!) and presumably use the $8.0 million room mid-level exception to sign Oubre. That means George and Drummond are the only two who are going into the Sixers’ cap space.

The Sixers could also take advantage of expanded salary-matching rules and look to flip Reed’s contract for a more expensive salary—they can take back up to $7.5 million more than they send out as long as they stay below the first apron. Staying below the first apron might be a challenge once they finalize Maxey’s new max deal, though. (Keep that in mind regarding any Dorian Finney-Smith trades you cook up over the coming days.)

They’d be better off spending the remainder of their cap space and then signing Martin to a 1+1 balloon deal with the intention of potentially moving him at the trade deadline. Signing him to such a deal would give the Sixers a way to upgrade midseason that they otherwise wouldn’t have. Again, the only risk here is if they hard-cap themselves some other way.

If not, the Sixers owners should be willing to foot a larger tax bill to improve their new Big Three’s chances of winning a championship. There are no more half-measures after signing George. The Sixers are all-in on winning now.

With some creativity, Martin—and his next contract—could help them do just that.

Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac and salary-cap information via RealGM.

2024 NBA free agency: After landing Paul George, Sixers’ surge to second overall in 2025 title odds nba,free,agency,after,landing,paul,george,sixers,surge,to,second,overall,in,title,odds,liberty,ballers,front-page,nba-free-agency,draftkings,76ers-analysis,76ers-free-agency-rumors-news

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In the wee hours of the night here on the East Coast, the Philadelphia 76ers were making it rain. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski dropped the bombshell scoop that Paul George is signing a four-year $212M deal, with a player option for the 2027-2028 season, with the Philadelphia 76ers. Not long after that we learned that All-Star Tyrese Maxey was receiving a max extension and the team was also retaining last season’s stellar minimum level acquisition wing Kelly Oubre, Jr. on a new team-friendly deal. Big Penguin Andre Drummond is back on board, and Morey lands another one of his favorite former Rockets in Eric Gordon too.

Having utilized cap space for the nine-time All-Star George, Philadelphia still has the No. 16 overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, sniper Jared McCain, the No. 41 overall pick, Adem Bona, an absolute freak athlete which he proved at the NBA pre-draft combine, plus the 76ers still possess four more future first-round picks to work with, and swaps.

We owe so much of it to our beloved Tyrese:

Tobias Harris is finally gone, landing big money to play for the Detroit Pistons (addition by subtraction?)

And they’ll look to round out the rest of the roster with a bit of remaining cap space before exceeding the cap by fleshing out the rest of the roster with veteran’s minimum deals for ring-chasing stars who can expect a fair amount of playing time — on such a now top-heavy roster.

Per Woj:

“George and his agent, Aaron Mintz of CAA, met in Los Angeles with a 76ers contingent that included owner Josh Harris, president of basketball operations Daryl Morey, general manager Elton Brand and Sixers legend Julius Erving, sources said. The Sixers even brought a front office executive, Peter Dinwiddie, who is a familiar face and friend of George’s from their years together with the Indiana Pacers, sources said.

The meeting came on the heels of months of unsuccessful negotiations between George and the LA Clippers on a deal to stay in his Southern California home.”

Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and the gangs’ odds on Draft Kings were around +1000 back when we thought there was a chance they might sign George.

Then their odds dropped precipitously to +1400 when Shams Charania reported the Sixers’ interest in the six-time All-NBA teamer had “significantly waned.”

It also didn’t help the Sixers’ cause when the New York Knicks traded for Mikal Bridges, and were soon able to retain OG Anunoby.

But by the time many of us woke up Monday morning, odds makers’ opinions of the current NBA hierarchy had shifted dramatically. Daryl Morey’s group has now peaked at +800, pushing the Knicks’ down from +800 to +950, following their loss of Isaiah Hartenstein.

The Boston Celtics have re-signed Derrick White, and even though Kristaps Porzingis is set to miss significant time as he rehabs from surgery, the reigning champs are still given a massive edge, +295.

The Celtics’ implied odds to win the 2024-2025 title are now around 25 percent. Philadelphia’s are near 11 percent. As many of you might remember, Morey said that if you have about a five percent chance it makes sense to cash in your future picks to go for it. Well, if that’s still the case, possessing an implied 11 percent should certainly entice him to keep looking to add firepower.

We’ll see how this plays out because it’s gotta be relatively unprecedented for a team that basically only has a handful of players (e.g. Embiid, Maxey, George, Drummond, Gordon, Oubre, Jr. McCain, Bona) in tow to be favored so heavily. So we’ll pay close attention to what happens with the final few roster spots. One name to watch could be veteran guard Reggie Bullock (pronounced Bull-LOCK which likely helps him lock up opposing guards).

The former Knick and Maverick is meeting with the Sixers and head coach Nick Nurse should be able to sell some helpful connective vets by offering a key role on a now true title contender.