Slow news day on June 27th.

It’s mostly a smattering of NBA rumors with some baseball sprinkled in.

But one thing jumped out at me, and it was this:

“Sixers! Go get him! Yeah let’s go get him!”

That’s usually the reaction whenever an intriguing free agent hits the open market, but of course Noel would be a perfect Joel Embiid backup here. Nerlens played 77 games for the Thunder last year, 75 coming off the bench, while averaging five points, four rebounds, and 1.2 blocks. That was over the course of 13.7 minutes on average.


He’s still only 25 years old and an affordable backup big, though I highly doubt he wants to come back to Philly after the turn of events that saw him exit in the first place. I wonder if he’d be willing to listen to Elton Brand however, with Bryan Colangelo out of the picture and a new set of team doctors in place.

The Sixers did not land a backup big in the draft, and the market in that area takes us into the territory of Dewayne Dedmon, JaVale McGee, and Ed Davis, three unrestricted guys. Further down the totem pole we come to Noah Vonleh and Kyle O’Quinn, so maybe the Sixers already plan a pursuit of one of those dudes.

Regarding Tobias Harris, Ky Carlin picked up on this nugget from Ric Bucher via Bleacher report:

Sub-max offers could be determining factors elsewhere as well. Tobias Harris, league sources said, is being offered less than a max contract by the Philadelphia 76ers, giving both the Dallas Mavericks and Denver Nuggets hope they can swoop in and lure him away. The Nuggets would have to renounce the rights to re-sign veteran power forward Paul Millsap, but a rival Western Conference executive said they appear willing to do that.

Offering Tobias less than the max would be risky, and would require him to buy in to the idea that the Sixers can win it all right now. Obviously you’d be saving money in an effort to resign JJ Redick or add somebody else, but other teams would be more than willing to max a 26 year old stretch four like Tobias. I’m higher on Harris than I think most Sixers fans and media.

Woj most recently said this about Tobias:

RE: Jimmy Butler and the Rockets’ reported interest in a sign-and-trade involving Eric Gordon, P.J. Tucker, and/or Clint Capela, I don’t see anything particularly new out there.

The biggest drop today was this:

Kemba as a Celtic would be interesting. Walker, Jayson Tatum, Gordon Hayward, Jaylen Brown, and/or Marcus Smart playing with the right center could be a solid scoring group, and it’s not as if you’re really seeing any drop off defensively with Kyrie Irving going elsewhere. Aron Baynes is gone, Al Horford is a free agent, and Daniel Theis is an RFA, so Boston needs a big in a big way.

Says Woj:

Aight. Buckle up, Sunday night approaches.