Keep the Knicks close & their enemies closer: The 76ers offseason with Dave Early
The Knicks head into the offseason ready to step up to contender status. The 76ers feel exactly the same — with good reason.
Earlier this week we heard from NetsDaily’s Lucas Kaplan regarding Brooklyn’s offseason storylines. In part two of our award-winning* KTKCATEC series, Dave Early from Liberty Ballers writes about potential paths Philadelphia’s summer might take.
(*I’m proud of how it’s going, and pride is an award we give ourselves)
Is there anything the 76ers can do differently next season to hopefully have a healthier Joel Embiid come playoff time? Is it just a matter of crossing their fingers and hoping for the best?
This has been Joel Embiid and the organization’s biggest hurdle since they drafted him in 2014. Since we have now essentially seen six (!) different iterations of front office struggle on this front, it’s time to take a much closer look at Embiid himself here.
I don’t think anyone outside of the Empire State Building would argue Joel is a top 2-4 talent when healthy. But he’s only had one healthy playoff run since high school, and that was the season the Sixers were swept in the Bubble – who knows how long the future Hall of Famer would have lasted had they eked out another win or two in 2020?
I think since the organization only has so much say or comfort benching/scratching a healthy star player – who is medically cleared and who wants to suit up – someone simply has to get through to him. If he wants to continue to prove his seemingly infinite haters wrong about his “ducking Jokić” or not being able to play all 82, or if he still has his sights set on scoring titles or All-NBA/65-game minimum marks for awards, then it’s perfectly reasonable to bank on more of the same, especially as he enters his age 30-31 season.
He has made it to the postseason healthy in three of the last four seasons, so he’s capable of doing it. If that’s not the primary focus in 2024-25, Sixer fans are probably in for more disappointment. We at Liberty Ballers have criticized too many prior regimes, medical and coaching staffs to oversimplify this topic. But also, yeah: it wouldn’t hurt to just take the decision out of his hands (like the Celtics just did for Kristaps Porziņģis) after fans have fired off the 837th tweet yearning for the squad to buy him time. If Boston can do this during the friggin’ Finals, the Sixers should be able to on long road trips in January.
The 76ers can re-make the roster pretty much however they like around Embiid and Tyrese Maxey. Who’d be the dream acquisition? The consolation prize? The longshot?
It’s clear that with the new CBA forcing teams away from Big 3 models, the Sixers should instead look to sprinkle around their near $65 million cap space on a combo of Cam Reddish, Frank Ntilkikina, Kevin Knox and Taj Gibson. Just kidding.
Of course you still want as many stars as possible, as Boston reminded us. The top two names on the market are Paul George and LeBron James. Most of our readers prefer LeBron, even though PG seems like the better fit alongside Joel and Maxey. I think any fan should be over the moon with either. Betting on which of the two would be better for the 2025/2026 playoffs depends on how much of an alien you think LeBron is, I guess.
Once the Sixers got bounced by the Knicks, I wrote that their best offseason plan would be signing PG (35 next May). If somehow Clips’ owner Steve Ballmer and his $130 billion net worth got stingy (by contrast, James Dolan is worth an estimated $2 billion, Sixers’ managing partner Josh Harris’ $9 billion), maybe Philadelphia could pry the podcaster for a $212 million max. If he took their money, the 76ers would still have roughly $16.7 million remaining in cap-space, an $8 million room exception and could fill out the rest of the roster with veteran minimums.
If, for example, they traded this year’s first-round pick (#16) for future draft ammo (a la Leon Rose snubbing Jalen Williams and Jalen Duren in 2022 for future picks), they could also look to be major players (with four or more picks) in the $10-$15 million range as the next trade deadline approached. Most of that applies to King James as well, except that you’d probably assume they’re using one of those picks on Bronny.
As for consolation prizes, somehow stealing OG Anunoby from your Knicks would be the next best thing, I suppose. Even if you’re knowingly overpaying for a guy with a checkered injury history, you’re still retaining your current (up to five on draft day) war chest. If none of those ideas workout, I’d guess they look to “balloon” deal a couple guys on 1+1’s. Overpaying names like Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Klay Thompson, maybe retaining Kelly Oubre Jr. and/or Buddy Hield might allow Morey to thread the needle by building a team he believes in while buying time until a Donovan Mitchell, Jimmy Butler or Brandon Ingram could be had. If Riley won’t extend Butler, it’s only a matter of time until he’s on the move again, one would think. And BI seems like a name who might be dealt on draft day. If the Cavs steal Johnny Bryant from the Knicks to be their new head coach, maybe they feel confident they can keep Spida long-term.