July 12, 2024
Candice Ward/USA TODAY Sports
Joel Embiid said his patience was tested as the Sixers planned to add a star with cap space this summer. That patience was rewarded when the team signed nine-time All-Star Paul George to a four-year deal.
Now that the Sixers have the vast majority of their core rotation pieces put in place for the start of the 2024-25 season, let's take a look at how the new-look team is being viewed from a national perspective.
Sixers free agency primer: Literally everything you need to know
Tim Bontemps | ESPN
ESPN reporter Tim Bontemps caught up with the Sixers superstar at Team USA training camp to discuss the drastic changes that have been made to the Sixers' roster, particularly the addition of nine-time All-Star wing Paul George.
The Sixers' cap space ambitions were scrutinized for 12 months before things played out exactly as the team had hoped. But that does not make the last year of waiting and worrying any easier, particularly for Embiid, who admitted the process tested his patience.
"I'd be lying to say that patience wasn't tested," Embiid told ESPN. "Because I'm at the point where there's no awards, there's no regular season or no All-NBA or All-Stars is going to change the way my legacy is. Well, there's a few things that can change it, but the main one is the championship. So when you start thinking about what you want to be remembered as, you want to be remembered as someone that's won." [ESPN]
That second sentence is probably the most important here: after yet another disappointing postseason exit marred with Embiid dealing with injury issues, it continues to be abundantly clear that the former NBA MVP must treat the regular season as a tune-up period of sorts. He is one of the single most dominant forces in NBA history during the regular season, and no more domination between October and April will elevate his standing across the league or his eventual legacy. The time to win a ring -- or at least seriously contend for one again -- is here.
Zach Buckley | Bleacher Report
Zach Buckley wrote a story in which he came up with one trade idea to round out each NBA team's offseason. For the Sixers, he suggested a popular target: Brooklyn Nets wing Dorian Finney-Smith. Buckley suggested a deal in which the Sixers send the Nets a 2026 top-four protected first-round pick and sign-and-trade KJ Martin to Brooklyn to make the salaries match.
"The Sixers boast one of basketball's brightest collection of stars with Paul George now lining up alongside Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey. Philadelphia will still need reliable role players who can complement those elites.
Players like Finney-Smith, who should have win-now vultures circling above Brooklyn with the Nets going head-first into selling mode.
Finney-Smith is a shape-shifting defensive stopper with the lateral quickness to keep up with guards and the strength to bang with bigs near the basket. His three-ball has cooled a bit in recent seasons (34.3 percent over the past two), but considering where it was the three campaigns prior (38.9 percent), Philly would have every reason to believe the shot could be reignited by way of all the clean looks its stars would create." [Bleacher Report]
One future first for Finney-Smith seems reasonable -- though one could have a longer conversation about which of the picks the Sixers own should be in the deal -- but pulling off a sign-and-trade and using Martin's inflated salary to make a deal happen this summer would be extremely difficult.
The far more likely scenario is one that I outlined in June:
How the Sixers can prepare a major midseason trade during NBA free agency
The basic idea: giving Martin a "balloon contract," or a deal with an average annual value that seems high on the surface but is truthfully being given for the sake of facilitating a trade down the line. It would technically be a multi-year deal, but only the first season of the contract would be guaranteed.
As I detail in the story from last month, on many occasions in recent seasons the Sixers have not been able to make significant improvements to their roster via midseason trades because they lacked medium-sized salaries that could be filler in deals.
They are staring that issue in the face once again this season unless they are willing to part with Kelly Oubre Jr. or Caleb Martin, but giving Martin a balloon deal this summer and trading him for a key contributor in the winter -- perhaps it will be Finney-Smith -- could allow Sixers President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey to meaningfully upgrade the roster in a way he has often not been able to do.
Bobby Marks | ESPN
Bobby Marks -- who covers front office-related matters for ESPN -- broke down a handful of deals signed thus far which he believed were the most and least team-friendly contracts. The Sixers' deal with Martin was the second agreement listed under the "best bargains on the market" section.
Marks wrote:
"Considering the financial limitations Philadelphia faced once George signed, the four-year, $32 million Martin contract is a coup. The benefit of Martin on a team-friendly contract ($8.1 million of his salary this year is 5.8% of the salary cap) is not only about this season but also about the next one for Philadelphia. The 76ers have over $140 million committed to Joel Embiid, George and Tyrese Maxey.
Martin averaged a career-high 10 points last season for the Miami Heat and has seen his scoring increase during the postseason. He averaged 12.5 points and shot 52% from the field and 43% on 3-pointers in the past two postseasons.
Martin will earn an additional $1.2 million if he plays in at least 67 games and Philadelphia wins 49 games and then reaches the second round of the playoffs." [ESPN]
The three-star model of roster construction was en vogue for more than a decade in the NBA, but today's salary cap environment discourages that form of team-building. The Sixers have bucked that trend and pushed their chips in on Embiid, Maxey and George. In order to make this sort of team successful in the era of punitive apron penalties, teams must find several quality two-way contributors on cost-effective contracts. That is exactly what the Sixers have done with the addition of Martin.
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