The Sixers are still basking in the afterglow of having signed Paul George. But doing so — offering the 34 year-old small forward out of Fresno, a $212M four-year contract, has left them in a bit of a cap crunch. They were able to lock up Tyrese Maxey on a $204M deal of his own, one that the first-time All-Star deserved.
But the reason the team was able to sign PG in the first place was because they didn’t take on any long-term salary either last offseason, or around the 2024 NBA Trade Deadline.
Our Paul Hudrick wrote about the guts it took Daryl Morey to thread the needle there, doing what it took to help the team last season, without costing themselves the chance to pursue bigger fish last week.
One “needle-thread” move they did make, however, was when they acquired former Kings, and Pacers guard, Buddy Hield last February. Hield had his moments in a Sixers’ uni, but once Joel Embiid went down with a torn meniscus, he didn’t really deliver what coach Nick Nurse was hoping for.
And now it appears as if the Bahama Mamba may be departing for the Golden State Warriors.
Per Shams Charania, of The Athletic and FanDuelTV:
Just In: The Golden State Warriors are in serious talks on a sign-and-trade deal to acquire Buddy Hield, league sources tell @TheAthletic@Stadium. Warriors and 76ers have been in deep discussions, working to finalize the deal for one of the NBA’s best three-point shooters. pic.twitter.com/s3sajpWx69
We’ve yet to get more details, but you can be sure that Philadelphia would love to recoup any type of asset, even if it were merely a future second-round pick or a trade exception.
We won’t expect miracles here but anything like that would be better than letting Hield, acquired for a couple of second-round picks, (while also parting ways with Marcus Morris, Sr. and Furkan Korkmaz in a three team trade that also included the San Antonio Spurs) walk for nothing return.
The Golden State Warriors recently bid fairwell to future Hall of Famer, Klay Thompson, a four-time champion with The Dubs, so apparently their newish front office wanted to bolster the shooters that Steph Curry can work with.
Earlier on Tuesday, current Warrior, Draymond Green shared his thoughts on the Warriors push to land Paul George that fell apart when the Clippers didn’t want to play ball with a Conference rival. That was just one of the things Daryl Morey and the Sixers needed to go their way.
Philly still has a few first-rounders and some cap space to work with. There was recently a report from Hoops Hype’s Michael Scotto that Philadelphia could be interested in acquiring Brooklyn Nets’ wing Dorian Finney-Smith, or potentially Warriors’ Lester Quinones.
So we’ll see if LQ might not be exchanged for Hield. The Sixers have already had sad goodbyes with De’Anthony Melton (a Warrior) and Nico Batum (a Clipper once again). Now it sounds as if Buddy could be bound for the Warriors, joining Melton.
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.
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.”
Retired multiple world boxing champion Manny Pacquiao of the Philippines speaks during a press conference at a hotel in Tokyo on June 10, 2024. It was announced on June 9 that he will fight Japanese mixed martial artist Chihiro Suzuki in a three-round boxing match on July 28 in Saitama, north of Tokyo. (Photo by Kazuhiro NOGI / AFP)
Boxing great Manny Pacquiao said Monday that he is in negotiations to make a comeback but cautioned that a potential world title fight against Mario Barrios was “far away.”
The 45-year-old multiple world champion from the Philippines quit the sport in 2021 and made a failed tilt at his country’s presidency.
He has signed up to fight a three-round exhibition bout against Japanese mixed martial artist Chihiro Suzuki next month in Saitama, north of Tokyo.
READ: Manny Pacquiao ‘ready to go’ for comeback fight possibly in Saudi
Pacquiao said he was in talks to face the American Barrios for the WBC welterweight world title but said the potential fight was still “far away”.
“We’re still in negotiations and we’re talking about that. The fight has not materialised yet,” Pacquiao, who has hinted at comebacks before, said in Tokyo.
“That negotiation is ongoing. It’s going to be by December — November or December.
“There’s still a lot of things to discuss and talk about.”
Pacquiao in February admitted defeat in his bid to fight at next month’s Paris Olympics when the International Olympic Committee rejected a special request for him to take part.
The IOC has an age limit of 40 for Olympic boxers.
READ: Pacquiao accepts his Olympic dream is over
Pacquiao retired weeks after losing to Cuban Yordenis Ugas in Las Vegas in his final professional fight.
He ran for the Philippines presidency but lost the May 2022 election by a huge margin.
He returned to the ring for an exhibition in Seoul in December 2022 against a South Korean YouTuber.
He will fight Suzuki on July 28 in a 68kg boxing match of three rounds at three minutes each, with no judges’ decision.
Pacquiao insisted the bout was “not an exhibition, this is a fight”.
“We are looking for a knock-out for this fight,” he said.
“There’s going to be a lot of action in the ring and of course I’ll do my best to win by knock-out.”
