Philadelphia 76ers
The 76ers are stuck this offseason. The 76ers plan on building around Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe in the future. But the Sixers appear stuck with Paul George and Joel Embiid, at least at the start of the season. Embiid, George, and Maxey are all making over $40 million and combine for $143 million of the 76ers’ $182 million salary cap hit.
Philadelphia finished with a 45-37 record this past season, a 21-game improvement over the previous season, and finished sixth in the Eastern Conference despite Embiid, George, and Kelly Oubre Jr combining to miss 121 games. The 76ers upset the Celtics in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. But we were swept in the conference semis by the New York Knicks.
The 76ers have a new general manager in Mike Gansey, and he has decisions to make about whether to keep unrestricted free agents Quentin Grimes and Oubre. Dominick Barlow, Jabari Walker and Adem Bona are among the five Sixers who either hold team options or nonguaranteed contracts and are expected to return.
The Sixers have the No. 22 pick in June’s draft. They have the non-tax mid-level exception and a couple of small trade exceptions.
“That’s a lot for a team changing leadership at the very top of the front office, which is why [Bob]Myers said he ideally wanted someone in place before the draft,” Tony Jones of The Athletic said. “Gansey said on Monday that a focus for the Sixers will be adding as much depth as possible. The 76ers are top-heavy, even if they have four guys at the top. They need more guys who are playable in the postseason. By the time they were eliminated in the second round, they had around seven guys who were credibly able to get onto the floor with the Knicks. That’s not enough. These days, a good playoff team has at least nine playable guys.”
Dustin Safranek, Imagn Images via Reuters Connect
