This Sixers offseason isn’t short on possibilities.
As president of basketball operations Daryl Morey acknowledged last month, everything from mammoth home runs to much less satisfying outcomes sounds plausible.
“I think that there’s a chance that all the balls go up and they all land,” Morey said at his end-of-season press conference. “And everyone will be mad, and that’s fine. But what we definitely can’t do in that situation is actually hurt ourselves. … The main mistake that could be made that we won’t make is if some of the better options don’t go our way — trade into our cap space, free agents, turn our draft picks into things … if all those things don’t yield what we want, we are definitely not going to just sign some player for a lot of money who’s just an OK player.
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“That will be where we can’t continue to build a contender around Joel (Embiid) and Tyrese (Maxey). So in those scenarios, we’ll be doing shorter deals and then using our draft picks to set ourselves up for trades or set ourselves up for the next opportunity when it comes. We want to open all the doors to make ourselves a contender, but we can’t close all the future doors, unless we think the move we are doing can (make the team) the best in the East at least.”
The 64-win Celtics were rather comfortably the Eastern Conference’s top team this year. They kicked off the 2024 NBA Finals on Thursday night with a Game 1 victory over the Mavs.
The Sixers, meanwhile, have been waiting for the summer action to formally begin. Once the Finals finish, teams will be allowed to negotiate with their own free agents this offseason under the NBA’s new collective bargaining agreement. We’ll soon see exactly how the Sixers approach that window with role players like Nicolas Batum, Kelly Oubre Jr. and Kyle Lowry who fit nicely next to their All-Star duo.
“We have interest in pretty much all our free agents,” Morey said. “It’s just we’re definitely not going to bring them all back; it’s just the reality of the league.”
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Next on the calendar is this year’s two-day NBA draft June 26 and 27. The Sixers hold picks No. 16 and 41, but Morey’s never a sure thing to select prospects and always willing to deal. He’s made three significant draft-night trades since joining the Sixers, adding Danny Green, Seth Curry and De’Anthony Melton.
The thorough lack of players under contract and Morey’s open-to-everything, star-hunting style means that few hypotheticals are outlandish.
If the Bulls are finally a bit more open to selling, could the Sixers acquire an All-Defensive guard in Alex Caruso? Could Brandon Ingram or another high-scoring No. 3 sort of option wind up in Philadelphia? What will come of the Sixers’ widely reported interest in Paul George, who’s yet to get the extension offer he’d like from the Clippers? Can the Sixers nail a non-star signing or two?
In a month, the roster won’t just be Embiid, Maxey and question marks.
The Sixers must map out good potential answers and be ready for it all. They need to meaningfully improve after another early-round playoff exit, whatever that looks like.
“I think the storylines around how do you win in this league … I’ve been around quite a bit,” Morey said. “I know there was a time when jump shooting teams couldn’t win. Recently, you couldn’t have bigs and win. Now, the story is you have to have bigs to win.
“The reality is you need very good players, you need better players than your opponents, and there isn’t really a formula.”