Sixers

Someone Else Is Making The Case For LeBron to The Sixers

By Kyle Scott

Published: Jul 6th, 2017 · 4:18 PM EDT

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Jason McIntyre of The Big Lead writing about possible LeBron destinations next year:

A team that has been tanking for four seasons? We can start this discussion here – if the 76ers are healthy this season and win 45-50 games and win a round in the playoffs, eyes will perk up around the NBA. The potential is there for this team to be very good, very quickly.

The health issue is large, obviously, and the strides they make this season are paramount to any LeBron-to-Philly discussion. But two enormous points that must be considered: 1) The East is certainly weaker than the West, and LeBron could waltz to the Conference Finals with the 76ers; 2) They’ll have enormous amounts of salary cap room next summer. They currently have 0 bad contracts on the books. They have excellent young assets if they need to create room (say, trading Jeryd Bayless, Jahlil Okafor and Dario Saric) for LeBron and a friend.

Not to harp on the health issue, but Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid could be a very dominant duo next year, and then you toss in Markelle Fultz and you’ve got a lethal trio.

As you might recall, I said the same thing.

This is probably a pipe dream, but my guess is Thunder fans would’ve said the same thing about Paul George this year.

By many accounts, LeBron and George will want to go form their own super team in LA next year (unless George falls in love with Russell Westbrook and they make happy hardwood babies together). But in this era of NBA team-building, the current success of the team has little impact on where superstars wind up, either through free agency or trade. Adding LeBron and or George to just about any team would instantly make them contenders, so you should quickly throw out the notion that they would only go to a current contenders. More: Few teams, perhaps none, will have the financial flexibility that the Sixers will. Yes, they will most likely have to pay Embiid at some point over the next 12 months – which already has Mike Sielski wondering if The Process will take less money to aid in the Sixers’ growth (I don’t think he should) – but that likely won’t prevent them from doling out additional hefty free agent contracts (though doing so could create some problems when it comes time to extend Ben Simmons in a few years).

More importantly, if the Sixers rattle off 40+ wins this year and their young core lives up to the hype, Philly would be exactly the sort of place where superstars would want to come. Few destinations could offer better marketing opportunities and exposure (in fact, probably only New York and LA come with that feature built-in). Their practice facility – where players spend most of their time – is top-notch. It’s close to New York, with a helipad on top. And so on.

Oh, and then there’s the fact that, currently, 14 of the 15 best NBA players are in the Western Conference, with LeBron being the only one in the East. That could change next year, but the West will for a time remain the much more powerful conference, say nothing of the existence of the Warriors, who have at least a few more years on top. If LeBron is chasing rings, he would do well to stay in the East.

And so that brings us back to the one-year contracts the Sixers just handed out to J.J. Redick and Amir Johnson. Bryan Colangelo reportedly told agents that’s all he was interested in giving out this year. Why? Flexibility. He knows that the Sixers will likely be a destination next year. Players will want to come here. The opportunity for free agents to play alongside talented, affordable young players and perhaps one or two potential superstars, in a conference with maybe only one other good team (the Celtics), will be hard to pass up. There’s a definite case to be made for the Sixers being in on anyone and everyone. And if they don’t land a big fish in free agency next year, they seem likely to be the landing spot for Klay Thompson, who has two years left with the Warriors but could potentially be traded before he walks since the Warriors won’t have enough money to pay him. He’s the (much) better version of J.J. Redick. Imagine how enticing Philly will be in a year or two to Thompson if he sees that Redick put up career numbers playing alongside Simmons, Embiid and Fultz.

The point is, the Sixers could be the landing spot next season.