Over the course of the last eight seasons, the Philadelphia 76ers have remained in prime position to contend for a championship thanks to the otherworldly talent of Joel Embiid. In fact, only three teams in the association have more total wins over the course of the last seven seasons. Since the start of the 2017-18 season, only the Bucks, Celtics and Nuggets can claim more regular season victories.
The growth of Tyrese Maxey has only helped further cement Philly’s place among the top threats to take home a title in this era. The Sixers’ biggest roadblock to this point has simply been health. Last month, Embiid was once again not fully healthy for the postseason, and it ended up costing the team a first-round playoff series victory over the Knicks.
To create insurance for what can now be considered inevitable injuries to this team’s roster, the 76ers will want to focus on building out their group this summer with strong role players that can bring needed depth and make up for lost time from stars. However, it seems that President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey will be looking to do the opposite of this, and that could be a serious detriment to the Sixers.
After the playoffs ended for Philadelphia, Morey spoke with media and discussed his vision for the team’s direction this offseason. “Historically, having top players works better,” he said. “We’re not going to have continuity … We’ll have continuity with out stars and our head coach. But we’re going to have a lot of change this offseason.”
Morey is close to overpaying for a third star
The ambitious executive explained that the front office will be focused on simply acquiring the best players possible. Of course, many have already discussed the possibility of the Sixers trading for a star-level player like Paul George. While he could be a great basketball fit, putting together a package for a talent the likes of PG could have some serious and longlasting negative effects on this franchise.
In a situation like this where Team B is highly interested in getting a top player from Team A, Team B typically ends up overpaying for that star since Team A has all the leverage. On top of that, we already have evidence of Morey doing just that in the last several years when he gave up too much for Philly to acquire James Harden in 2022.
If the 76ers become intent on acquiring a Paul George or a player of similar stature, they will likely have to sacrifice depth in order to make the salaries match in the deal, which would decimate their roster and leave them handicapped financially. At that point, they may only have enough cap space to sign minimum contracts.
The better approach here would be to go after multiple role player-level guys that you believe fit well next to your two established stars. For example, the Kelly Oubre signing worked out very well this past season, and hunting out hidden gems would be a lot less risky an approach.
