Georges Niang Headed to Cleveland: Who Will Replace Him?
Goodbye, Minivan.
Adam Aaronson, whose legal name is Sixers Adam (@SixersAdam on Twitter), covers the Sixers for The Rights To Ricky Sanchez. He believes cantaloupe is the best food in existence, and is brought to you by the Official Realtor of The Process, Adam Ksebe.
Sixers free agent sharpshooter Georges Niang has agreed to a three-year, $26M deal with the Cleveland Cavaliers, ending his two-year tenure in Philadelphia, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Niang, who signed a two-year, $6.7M deal with the Sixers in 2021, played in 154 games with the team, averaging 21.1 minutes and 8.7 points per game while knocking down over 40 percent of his three-point tries.
Niang struggled mightily to defend in his first playoffs as a Sixer, being repeatedly exploited by the Miami Heat thanks to his lackluster mobility. However, his second playoff run -- sans a knee injury that nagged him during the end of his first year in Philadelphia -- went much better, as he did a better job defending in space and knocked down some critical threes.
Niang heads to a Cavaliers team desperate for outside shooting -- his presence should help aid their floor spacing issues around Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen.
There are plenty of potential replacements for Niang detailed in my Free Agency Primer, which you should keep tabs on as the free agency market begins to dwindle.
The most obvious move for the Sixers would be to replace Niang with another big-bodied forward who is a legitimately dangerous three-point shooter. However, there are not many of those players in the free agent market.
Kevin Love, who flirted with the idea of coming to Philadelphia last season, could be an option, though he may elect to remain with the Miami Heat. Yuta Watanabe shot 44 percent from beyond the arc last season at 6-foot-9 in a breakout season for the Brooklyn Nets.
If the Sixers look to the trade market for a replacement, Kelly Olynyk seems like an ideal candidate -- Olynyk is expendable with the Jazz adding John Collins to their duo of Lauri Markkanen and Walker Kessler.