The Philadelphia 76ers are something of the wild card this offseason in the NBA after a massive leap forward in 2017-18 into the realm of the contenders in the East.
They are a darkhorse to land LeBron James in free agency, being able to offer arguably the best combination of money and opportunity to win of any team on the market. They aren’t, however, a desired area for LeBron like Cleveland and L.A., where he already has homes, and there are questions about fit alongside Ben Simmons.
Not only can the Sixers be players for the top free agents, but they also have the assets to make a splash on the trade market. As of now, there is only one significant star on the block in Kawhi Leonard. The Lakers are in hot pursuit of Leonard to help sway LeBron into joining the Lakers, but the Spurs would prefer to send him East rather than help out a Western Conference rival if the right package is out there.
That is where Philadelphia and Boston come into play. For now, the Celtics are wisely withholding their best assets, as there are plenty of questions about Kawhi from health to whether this will simply be a one-year rental. As for the Sixers, talks with San Antonio to this point have been preliminary to figure out what the Spurs want, with most of the discussion being internally about what package they’d be willing to offer, according to Sports Illustrated‘s Jake Fischer.
Philadelphia’s internal discussions have focused on potential trade packages offering various young players and future draft selections. One team source says preliminary discussions with San Antonio revealed the Spurs have strong interest in a package involving burgeoning forwards Dario Saric and Robert Covington as well as a future first-round pick. A potential, more serious offer that Philadelphia is weighing internally includes Saric and Covington and the 2021 Miami Heat unprotected first-round pick the Sixers obtained in their draft-night deal with the Phoenix Suns.
Markelle Fultz is apparently not part of the discussion, much like how Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown aren’t involved for the Celtics, as Fischer noted on Twitter.
Within: Markelle Fultz is not involved in any potential trade packages the Sixers front office has legitimately brought to ownership attention. https://t.co/8wxE2ory9g
— Jake Fischer (@JakeLFischer) June 28, 2018
However, the 2021 Miami pick could be one of the league’s most valuable future assets, and that, coupled with the known quantities of Saric and Covington, could make for a very strong offer that could rival the Lakers. This is not an offer currently on the table, of course, but simply what they are discussing as a front office, which is an important distinction because, as Fischer notes, the Sixers have been wary of dealing either of those players.
If San Antonio were to decide to choose between those three teams, the Sixers and Celtics only need to produce a better offer than the other and may only need to come close to the Lakers’ offer to land Leonard. San Antonio would prefer to send him East, knowing that trading him to the Lakers likely means LeBron joins too, and as we saw last year with Paul George, sending a star to the other conference can be enough of an incentive to pass on what may be, in a vacuum, a somewhat better offer.
