** Official 2024 Make or Break Offseason Thread **

[Arsenal]

Elite player route:
Either acquire via trade or FA.

Elite role players route:
Either acquire via trade or FA.

We have two assets, draft capital and cap space. It wouldn't make sense imo to use both draft capital AND cap space for an elite player, unless you're getting a tier A superstar. The only guy here is Lebron imo.

Given the landscape of FA, I do actually believe signing PG is the best option. He's still 98th percentile in EPM. Even a 10% regression would give us an elite 3+D / secondary playmaker that fits like a glove next to Embiid/Maxey.

This would give us ~20M (could be off here) for our role players. The best part about using strictly cap space to sign PG would be that we'd retain our assets for trading pieces later on.

5-6 4-8M/year guys:
S+T Buddy + LAC first + 2RP for Caruso
1 year / 4M deal for Batum
Bruce Brown at 7M?
Oubre at 7M MLE
Lowry at min

Maxey Caruso PG Batum Embiid
Lowry Brown Oubre RC4 Reed

I agree with this. Probably one of the least bad outcomes is signing Paul George for pure cap. That way at least we keep our draft assets for future upgrades via trade.

The worst outcome will be trading away many picks for a similar impact guy like Jimmy Butler. Then we're as stuck as the Suns and Clippers are with almost no way to improve going forward.

You're right that Paul George's impact metrics this year were insanely good, so I think we can expect at least 2 years of all-star play from him at age 34 and 35. After that I don't expect much but at least his contract would probably be tradable.

[ExplosionsInDaSky]

Address the rebounding issues. Starting a 35 year old Batum at power forward doesn't fix that. I really think we need a bigger, taller, athletic player in the frontcourt with Joel. Jalen Smith would be perfect.

[Arsenal]

Address the rebounding issues. Starting a 35 year old Batum at power forward doesn't fix that. I really think we need a bigger, taller, athletic player in the frontcourt with Joel. Jalen Smith would be perfect.

I think we need to have both options, either double big or a stretch-4. Similar to the Celtics who can play Porzingis and Horford together (or previously Horford and Williams), or only one with Tatum at 4.

In our case that could be Embiid + Smith for double big, then Embiid + Batum as the stretch-4. Or again bring back The Homie as a stretch-4 or stretch-5 backup option.

[Arsenal]

How low will the trade price be for an expiring Brandon Ingram? If it's low enough it's worth considering. The key is for him to force his way here to get rid of the trade competition. Tell them he won't resign anywhere else. Morey's tampering abilities are key.

Read on Twitter

[76ciology]

Let’s use George to show why. Since he has 10-plus years of NBA experience, the Sixers can give him up to a four-year, $212.2 million contract in free agency based on the current $141 million cap projection. His starting salary would be $49.35 million.

Joel Embiid is the only player whom the Sixers have under guaranteed contract next season. He’s set to earn $51.4 million. The Sixers will also keep Tyrese Maxey’s $13.0 million cap hold on their books until they conduct the rest of their free-agent business, and then they’ll likely sign him to a five-year, $204.5 million max contract (assuming he doesn’t make an All-NBA team). Those two alone will count as $64.4 million against the Sixers’ cap sheet at the start of free agency.

To create the oft-bandied-about $65 million in cap space, the Sixers would have to waive Paul Reed and Ricky Council IV (both of whom are on non-guaranteed contracts), decline their team option on Jeff Dowtin Jr., trade the No. 16 overall pick without taking any salary back and renounce the rights to all of their free agents. None of that should be ruled out for the right target, but the Sixers would have to rebuild their entire supporting cast around their new Big Three.

If the Sixers signed George to a max contract, he’d combine with Embiid and Maxey’s cap hold to take up nearly $113.8 million. Add in nine incomplete roster charges ($1.16 million each), and the Sixers would have less than $16.8 million left in cap space, along with the $8.0 million room-level exception. That’d still be enough to add another piece or two, but again, creating that much space would require getting rid of everyone who isn’t willing to return on a minimum-salary contract.

Let’s say Oubre is willing to return for the room MLE, as ESPN’s Bobby Marks recently speculated. (Perhaps it’d be part of the Bobby Portis Plan for him.) That would leave the Sixers with Embiid, Maxey, George, Oubre and less than $17 million in cap space. From there, it boils down to how many players from this past year’s roster are willing to return on minimum contracts. The Sixers can sign players to min deals even if they’re over the cap, so from an order-of-operations standpoint, they’d push that off until they spend the rest of their cap space first.

If Batum, Payne and Lowry were willing to come back on min deals, the Sixers would then have a decent seven-man core. They could keep RC4 for $1.9 million as well, and they’d still have $16.0 million in cap space. (Keeping him would remove one incomplete roster charge from their books.) If they spent that remaining cap space on an impact player or two—Caleb Martin, perhaps?—and nailed the rest of their minimum signings, they could find themselves on the short list of championship favorites heading into next season.

[davesilver]

the Sixers signed George to a max contract, he’d combine with Embiid and Maxey’s cap hold to take up nearly $113.8 million. Add in nine incomplete roster charges ($1.16 million each), and the Sixers would have less than $16.8 million left in cap space, along with the $8.0 million room-level exception. That’d still be enough to add another piece or two, but again, creating that much space would require getting rid of everyone who isn’t willing to return on a minimum-salary contract.

Let’s say Oubre is willing to return for the room MLE, as ESPN’s Bobby Marks recently speculated. (Perhaps it’d be part of the Bobby Portis Plan for him.) That would leave the Sixers with Embiid, Maxey, George, Oubre and less than $17 million in cap space. From there, it boils down to how many players from this past year’s roster are willing to return on minimum contracts. The Sixers can sign players to min deals even if they’re over the cap, so from an order-of-operations standpoint, they’d push that off until they spend the rest of their cap space first.

If Batum, Payne and Lowry were willing to come back on min deals, the Sixers would then have a decent seven-man core. They could keep RC4 for $1.9 million as well, and they’d still have $16.0 million in cap space. (Keeping him would remove one incomplete roster charge from their books.) If they spent that remaining cap space on an impact player or two—Caleb Martin, perhaps?—and nailed the rest of their minimum signings, they could find themselves on the short list of championship favorites heading into next season.

Bingo

[Arsenal]

the Sixers signed George to a max contract, he’d combine with Embiid and Maxey’s cap hold to take up nearly $113.8 million. Add in nine incomplete roster charges ($1.16 million each), and the Sixers would have less than $16.8 million left in cap space, along with the $8.0 million room-level exception. That’d still be enough to add another piece or two, but again, creating that much space would require getting rid of everyone who isn’t willing to return on a minimum-salary contract.

Let’s say Oubre is willing to return for the room MLE, as ESPN’s Bobby Marks recently speculated. (Perhaps it’d be part of the Bobby Portis Plan for him.) That would leave the Sixers with Embiid, Maxey, George, Oubre and less than $17 million in cap space. From there, it boils down to how many players from this past year’s roster are willing to return on minimum contracts. The Sixers can sign players to min deals even if they’re over the cap, so from an order-of-operations standpoint, they’d push that off until they spend the rest of their cap space first.

If Batum, Payne and Lowry were willing to come back on min deals, the Sixers would then have a decent seven-man core. They could keep RC4 for $1.9 million as well, and they’d still have $16.0 million in cap space. (Keeping him would remove one incomplete roster charge from their books.) If they spent that remaining cap space on an impact player or two—Caleb Martin, perhaps?—and nailed the rest of their minimum signings, they could find themselves on the short list of championship favorites heading into next season.

I'm ok with this plan considering the alternatives. I think we can get 2 rotation players with the remaining $16m of cap. Perhaps Buddy Hield and Batum who I don't think comes back for vet min. Then get Drummond and Dario for vet min. Then we also have our 1st and 2nd rounder to fill out the rotation.

PG Maxey | Payne | Lowry
SG HIeld | Council | 2nd
SF George | Oubre | 1st
PF Batum | Saric | ??
CE Embiid | Drummond | ??

Even better if Melton comes back on a vet min. That may be his best option considering it preserves his Bird Rights, so if he has a healthy season we can pay him MLE money or even more. If he goes elsewhere for a small increase over the vet min, his Bird Rights are lost.

And if RoCo can get healthy, getting him back for vet min helps with the depth.

Now you're still got all your draft picks to make trades for upgrades at the deadline for guys like Caruso, Brodgon, etc.

[76ciology]

Brandon Ingram's slump is concerning, as it was evident even when he was with the USA team during the summer before the regular season.

[76thBearCub]

Reading this thread makes one thing clear to me. Don't even think about trading the Clippers pick or any beyond it. Wer guna need them.

[Mik317]

The key is to build a team with the least amount of weaknesses possible.

The Celtics main weakness in the past was that lack of true clutch play...which stemed from Tatum and Brown being tough shot taker guys with subpar passing...which on an off night can look pretty awful. They have surrounded them with guys capable of taking on that role and the gameplan seems to be to simply blow teams the **** out so there is no clutch time lol. They have a gaggle of bigs that can switch AND protect the rim and everyone who plays can stretch the floor. Their only remaining flaw might be deep depth but because their core is pretty sturdy it hasn't mattered yet (Kristaps going down will be interesting as I think losing him will test that depth).

The Nuggets main weakness may be rim protection but they have enough wing defenders that getting to the rim takes a lot of work and Jokic is sneaky good in the passing lanes and just being huge and in the way can still muck things up. Again depth may be an issue as Bruce Brown and the corpse of Jeff Green was big for them last year. Murray randomly turning into Jordan is something you can't keep expecting to happen but if it does then lol.

The Wolves are just long and athletic and Rudy doesn't have to put out all the fires on the perimeter. I still question their end of game decision making and KATs propensity for just absolute doo doo mode tho. OKC is super deep and their flaw is not having enough girth (wakka wakka) to handle bigs and their general youth.

Meanwhile beyond Biid's injury and similar clutch issues, we also lack size, lack athleticism, and lack depth. Thats a lot to overcome consistently.

[Negrodamus]

I’m so shellshocked by this teams absence of rebounding that I’m ready to throw a 5mil contract to Oscar Tshiebwe this summer.

[Stanford]

I love Markkanen and think he would be amazing here, but I'd like to see how he performs in a playoff series before we dump every asset we have for him.

[76ciology]

I love Markkanen and think he would be amazing here, but I'd like to see how he performs in a playoff series before we dump every asset we have for him.

If we can generate two first-round picks with our $60 million cap space, we could then offer our 2024 1st round pick, our 2026 OKC 1st round pick, and our 2026 1st round pick swap, along with the two first-round picks from the $60 million cap space trade, totaling four first-round picks and a swap.

While we’d still have our 2027 top 8 protected pick, and all of our picks from 2028 to beyond and Clippers' pick and swap to be used for the post-Embiid era.

[Arsenal]

Daryl Morey end of season press conference at 1pm ET today:

Read on Twitter

[SixthStreet]

I don't believe for a second that Morey actually wants to blow the cap on 1 player like George or Butler. It's just the easiest and laziest way for writers and ESPN talking heads to get clicks or views. I don't think he's going to dip into free agency either.

I think Morey's going to acquire draft capital to absorb contracts of good role players in the $8-$20m range to load up for after January 15th. The new tax rules will allow some good players to shake free unexpectedly as coward owners map out future cash flow, IMO. With our lack of tradeable players in the offseason I don't think our trade offers are too strong despite the FRPs.

It'll be a two-step plan as much as it will annoy us.

[FireMorey]

Windhorst said it's unlikely the Clippers will re-sign Paul George and he appears likely to enter free agency. And the Clippers don't want to pay him a max.

[Negrodamus]

Windhorst said it's unlikely the Clippers will re-sign Paul George and he appears likely to enter free agency. And the Clippers don't want to pay him a max.

One man's trash is another man's more expensive trash.

[Jailblazers7]

I might just tap out of the news feeds now and wait to see how things shake out. This is going to be an extremely volatile offseason & we’re gonna be in the news constantly given our cap space. Even when it’s BS, agents are going to be floating rumors about the Sixers being “interested” in their guy.

In terms of priority players:
1. Lauri feels very unlikely. Perfect fit but Ainge would rather die than do a fair deal with the Sixers.
2. Ingram’s stock is tanking but could be worth it for the right price. Good buy low candidate but also a risk.
3. Paul George is a good fit but his injury history & playoff disappearing act is a big concern. Probably not worth it because he’d only come for the max.
4. PHX is a big unknown as I wouldn’t be surprised if KD got traded.
5. We’re gonna be a pawn in Lebron rumors, buckle up folks. It’s obviously never gonna happen but the rumors are gonna swirl.

[davesilver]

I don't believe for a second that Morey actually wants to blow the cap on 1 player like George or Butler. It's just the easiest and laziest way for writers and ESPN talking heads to get clicks or views. I don't think he's going to dip into free agency either.

I think Morey's going to acquire draft capital to absorb contracts of good role players in the $8-$20m range to load up for after January 15th. The new tax rules will allow some good players to shake free unexpectedly as coward owners map out future cash flow, IMO. With our lack of tradeable players in the offseason I don't think our trade offers are too strong despite the FRPs.

It'll be a two-step plan as much as it will annoy us.

Damnit — this is the most likely outcome isn’t it

[Arsenal]

Windhorst said it's unlikely the Clippers will re-sign Paul George and he appears likely to enter free agency. And the Clippers don't want to pay him a max.

If they’re really out on him that’s big. Maybe we get him for $45m instead of $50m in year one, which means we can add another $5-6m piece via cap space.

Something like 4 yrs $190m so $45m / yr would be good. First year could be as low as $42m, leaving $22m of cap to sign 3-4 other guys not including one more from the RE.