Boban Marjanovic only spent a half season with the Sixers, but it was enough to make him want to stay. In an interview with the Serbian website Zurnal (translated by Stefan Djordjevic of EuroHoops), Marjanovic said his preference in free agency is to remain in Philadelphia.
“ I don’t know what will happen. … I should, almost 90 percent, stay in Philadelphia but that’s not known yet, just speculation,” he said. “It was nice for me there, so why not.”
“The team is great, the players are talented,” Marjanovic added. “I think we had a chance to be the team playing the Finals this year but we had that bad luck of conceding the last-second basket. The city lives for basketball and sports in general. They have hockey, baseball, football, they follow everything, everything is organized until the very end and everybody knows who and what you are. Wherever you appear, everybody recognizes you because they follow all of it. A very nice experience.”
There’s more news from Philadelphia:
- The Sixers are in position to get another top free agent if they lose Jimmy Butler or Tobias Harris, writes Derek Bodner of The Athletic. If Butler leaves and they keep Harris, it would only take a small move to reach $38.15MM in cap space ( 35% of the cap), such as trading away Jonah Bolden‘s nearly $1.7MM salary or the No. 24 pick. If Butler stays and Harris goes, they can only get to $30MM in cap room by renouncing all their other free agents. They can reach a 30% max slot by finding a team willing to take Zhaire Smith and their first-rounder without sending any salary back.
- The Sixers are busy with workouts ahead of the June 20 draft. Today’s session featured Purdue’s Carsen Edwards, Delaware’s Eric Carter, Fairfield’s Jonathan Kasibabu, Buffalo’s C.J. Massinburg, Michigan’s Charles Matthews and Mississippi State’s Quinndary Weatherspoon, tweets Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Tomorrow, Philadelphia will welcome Temple’s Shizz Alston Jr., Australia’s Harry Froling, Alabama’s Donta Hall, Wake Forest’s Jaylen Hoard, Gonzaga’s Josh Perkins and Belmont’s Dylan Windler (Twitter link).
- Villanova’s Phil Booth and Eric Paschall will both participate in a session on Saturday, Pompey writes in a full story.
6ers should keep Harris and butler. JJ too. Very talented roster. Except for a lucky shot….they could be in finals.