There’s “growing optimism” that the Sixers will be able to win the Paul George sweepstakes and land the star forward, reports Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report (Twitter link).
George, who declined his 2024/25 player option with the Clippers on Saturday, is expected to meet with the 76ers, the Magic, and the Clips on Sunday night after the free agent period officially opens. Both Philadelphia and Orlando are said to be willing to offer a four-year, maximum-salary contract for George and have the cap room necessary to do so.
In addition to putting a four-year max deal on the table for him, the Sixers can offer George the opportunity to team up with 2023 MVP Joel Embiid and 2024 Most Improved Player Tyrese Maxey, creating a formidable big three that would make Philadelphia a legitimate contender in the Eastern Conference.
Marc Stein reported this afternoon that the Sixers are exploring ways to maximize their cap room and land both George and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. As cap expert Yossi Gozlan tweets, a maximum-salary contract for George would leave Philadelphia with only about $13MM in cap room, plus the $8MM room exception.
Acquiring either George or Caldwell-Pope via sign-and-trade could allow for a higher starting salary for KCP, but would require the cooperation of the player’s old team and would hard-cap the 76ers’ team salary at the first tax apron.
Teams aren’t permitted to negotiate or reach agreements with outside free agents until after the NBA’s free agent period officially opens at 5:00 pm Central time today.
Report: Growing Optimism Sixers Will Land Paul George
I am not surprised by this at all
Also, sign Klay Thompson too,
Bring back Oubre Jr ……..
Yeah, that might get you guys back to the second round
It’s the East. PG13, Klay, and Oubre would give them a decent shot if they stay healthy.
Right – – a decent chance to get to the 2nd round if they all stay healthy
2023 mvp in name only. Unless he is signing with Denver…
Making him walk is a weird choice for the clippers.
Losing George, Clippers have no cap room at all
Why didn’t they take Kuminga, Moody and Chris Paul yesterday
They can move Kuminga Moody Paul to Bulls easily
Letting him go over Kawahi is crazy in itself. Granted Kawahi is a career better player. But short of being 1 year younger. PG has been the better player for Clippers over their tenure and the “least” injured. I think they backed the wrong horse.
And couldn’t agree more they should have taken some sort of return like the apparent offer from Dubs. Big move if Philly get him though!
If they can’t land George, there’s always Ben Simmons!
Great Googly Moogly
Have fun paying for an oft-injured player who is past his prime. I like PG but the Clippers are actually being smart for the first time in a long while.
It’s so smart to let your second best player walk for nothing when it doesn’t even free up cap space.
I would be in favor of a re-process just no BS if they strike out on everyone. Trade for Grant, sign the rest w remaining cap space.
Saric, RoCo, Fultz, Joe, Seth, Drummond
Fultz can’t shoot but he’s a PG.
Maxey
Grant
Saric
Embiid
RoCo with wisdom off the bench. Joe and Seth was the bench shooters along with new processor McCain. Drummond to back up Joe.
Saric is not a starting caliber player anymore. He’s a 10-15 MPG role player. He was straight up awful last year, you are losing games by making him start.
I guess James Harden didn’t do enough to discourage the Sixers.
I don’t like the fact of paying him $50mil per year for the next 4yrs, but unless we wanna blow it up like 10yrs ago this is the best we can do. I would like to bring him and Klay in together but I don’t think they would each take a little less to make the team the best as possible
This is the best Morey can do. He’s a numbers guy, not a basketball guy. He can sign name guys or trade for them, and get the numbers to add up. He doesn’t have the basketball acumen to really build a team. If he did, he would have spent at least some of the last 4 years adding to the core beyond the 2 guys he essentially inherited. It was all about numbers. PG13 is what the number Gods are willing to yield. Sign him up. It could have been a lot worse.