How Would the Sixers Fill Out Their Roster After Landing Any of Their Big Offseason Targets?

The Sixers may get a big fish this summer -- Paul George, Jimmy Butler, LeBron James -- but they'll probably need some other players too. MOC breaks down they might reasonably go about doing that.

It’s been a long time – likely since the 2021 off-season, when Ben Simmons asked for a trade – since the Sixers entered the summer with anywhere near this much optionality for how they can improve their team moving forward. There is a mountain of uncertainty for what the roster will look like next year, given that Joel Embiid is the only player with a guaranteed contract for 2024-25, and that the Sixers can have up to $64.9 million in cap space entering the off-season. 

Already, the rumors are starting to swirl about what might happen, and last week, I put up a poll on Twitter asking everyone to vote for their preferred outcome of the off-season.

The obvious caveat, though, is that the question of which of those moves (or other potential moves) is best still depends on what the Sixers do to fill out the roster afterwards. So, here, I’ll try to go through the process of analyzing how the Sixers could potentially fill out the rest of their roster after acquiring any of these star players. Let’s get into it.

Signing Paul George to a 4-year max contract

I’ll admit that I’m becoming increasingly scared of signing Paul George after seeing the massive outpouring of Clippers fans labeling him as a loser who has lost all desire to compete on defense. BUT if there is a case to be made that signing PG is the best possible outcome this off-season, it’s largely based around the fact that the Sixers would have a much easier timing building around a Maxey-PG-Embiid trio than any of the other options listed here. 

Obviously, signing George into open cap space would prevent the Sixers from having to send out any draft capital, and so, they would still have up to five first round picks available to trade for quality players in order to help fill out the rest of the roster. But that’s not all – after signing George, the Sixers could waive Paul Reed’s contract in order to open up $16.8 million in leftover cap space. They could theoretically use that to target a high-level role player in free agency, such as Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Or, they could use it to trade for one or multiple high-level role players, such as Alex Caruso or Herb Jones. (Of course, they could also send Reed out in exchange for those players, if those other teams had interest).

In doing either of those things, though, the Sixers would then run out of cap space and be limited to using the room MLE (worth around $8 million) in order to retain Kelly Oubre, Jr. So, they will have to weigh the risk that Oubre will find a more lucrative offer elsewhere, and if so, the question becomes: Is it worth using up the majority of the remaining cap space on Oubre, vs. acquiring a different high-level role player? Personally, I don’t see Oubre getting a huge offer anywhere in free agency, and I could easily envision him being back on the MLE. And, if Oubre walks, there should be other options for the Sixers to dedicate that $8 million to. 

Let’s say, for hypothetical sake, that the Sixers sign George, trade Reed and the 16th and 42nd picks for Caruso, and then split their remaining $8 million in cap space between re-signing De’Anthony Melton and signing a backup center – let’s call him Andre Drummond. At that point, they would only have their MLE (which they could use on Oubre) and minimum contracts left to fill out the roster. Let’s assume that they’re able to bring back Kyle Lowry, Cam Payne and Nic Batum on minimum deals.

The roster would then become: Maxey, Caruso, Oubre, George, Embiid, Lowry, Payne, Melton, Batum and Drummond – and the Sixers would go into the season with four first round picks available to be traded. Without spoiling the rest of this thought exercise, that is most likely the best possible outcome (out of the plausible options, at least) for the Sixers’ offseason. 

Trading three first round picks for Mikal Bridges

Relative to the rest of the Sixers’ options, trading for Mikal Bridges has the advantage of allowing them to remain major players in free agency even after that trade. If the Sixers trade for Bridges and renounce everyone but Tyrese Maxey, they would have $42.8 million left over in cap space. 

Executing another trade for a high-level player naturally becomes difficult after using up the majority of your draft capital on Bridges, but they should have at least one first-round pick left over should they feel so inclined. If not, free agency is their best bet.

My personal preference would be to spread that wealth around on multiple high-quality role players, but they could go big name hunting if they wanted to. Would DeMar DeRozan take a team-friendly deal? Could the Sixers steal OG Anunoby from the Knicks? Unlikely, but worth considering.

More likely, the Sixers could make a play for 2-3 of Caldwell-Pope, Malik Monk, Royce O’Neale, Patrick Williams, Caleb Martin, and Jonas Valanciunas. 

Let’s say that the Sixers are able to nab KCP, Royce O’Neale, and Jonas Valanciunas, while also retaining Melton via leftover cap space. And, they re-sign Oubre on the MLE, and again, Lowry, Payne, and Batum on minimums. They would go into next season with a roster of: Maxey, Caldwell-Pope, Oubre, Bridges, Embiid, Lowry, Payne, Melton, O’Neale, Batum, and Valanciunas. 

It’s a marked improvement from last year’s team, and likely has better depth than the team I listed out in the Paul George scenario. The lone downside is that it leaves them with minimal flexibility to tinker with the team moving forward, and there’s a case to be made that the downgrade from George to Bridges – at least for this upcoming year – is significant. 

The other factor to consider is that the free agent pool could dry up quickly, as players like KCP could of course re-sign with their current teams, and at that point the Sixers would have very limited options for filling out their roster. 

Goodbye, Tobi

Trading 2 firsts and 2 seconds for Jimmy Butler

I’ll start by saying that Jimmy Butler is my favorite player on this list, and if all else were equal, I would easily choose him as my top target. But the problem with trading for Butler is that it leaves you with very limited options for improving the team moving forward – whereas signing George allows them to retain all of their picks, and trading for Bridges allows them to retain loads of cap space, trading for Butler allows for neither. 

After trading for Butler and waiving Reed, the Sixers would have $16.8 million leftover in cap space. That might be just enough to get them a high-end role player in free agency, while then leaving them with the MLE and minimum contract slots to fill out the rest of the roster. The best-case scenario is that they would go into next season with a lineup of Maxey, KCP, Oubre, Butler and Embiid, and a bench of Lowry, Payne, Batum, plus minimum contract backup center X (Mason Plumlee?). If you think it’s feasible to get Melton back on a minimum deal – I’m skeptical, but others seem to think it’s in play – you could add him to this mix as well. 

Still, it’s a very thin team with lots of old and injury-prone players, and not a ton of flexibility moving forward. 

Draft Breakdown: Jared McCain and Devin Carter — Two Potential Sixers First-Round Picks

Signing LeBron James to a 2-year max

With this scenario, you could essentially apply all of the same parameters as you would with Paul George – the Sixers would have $16.8 million in cap space after signing James, and all five first round picks available to trade. Perhaps you would alter the types of players you would go after – you likely need to focus more on building the roster out with shooters than you do with George – but the toolkit remains exactly the same. 

I would imagine that someone like Malik Monk becomes more of a target if the Sixers were to go the free agency route, and someone like Luke Kennard might be an ideal fit if the Sixers were to focus on the trade market.  Otherwise, the roster would likely end up being quite similar in the event of a LeBron signing as it would with a George signing. 

And then, there’s one other low-cost option that the Sixers might also consider.

Trading 2 first round picks for Jerami Grant

Personally, I think Jerami Grant is an underrated backup plan for the Sixers this summer. His physicality and athleticism are things that the Sixers have desperately missed from their wings in recent years. The major knock on Grant seems to be the fact that he desperately wants to have the ball a lot, but with this team, that shouldn’t be too much of a problem – the Sixers are starved for shot creation outside of Maxey and Embiid. Unless Grant simply wants to be in a losing situation where he can chuck up shots at will with no repercussions, I think he’d be really helpful here. 

I should clarify, though, that there is a strong chance that Grant does indeed want to just be the best player on a terrible team. He hasn’t exactly been doing a lot of the dirty work type of things that he used to do since he became a No. 1 option for Detroit and Portland – last year, he averaged a career-low 3.8 rebounds per 36 minutes (!). If the better options are off the board and the Sixers begin to consider trading for him, the entirety of the decision should come down to what type of intel they’re able to gather about his headspace. Does Jerami actually want to contribute to winning basketball? Is he willing to work hard on defense and on the glass on a nightly basis? If so, I’m all in. If not, count me out. 

Anyways, if they trade two first rounders for Grant and then waive Reed, they would be left with $36.3 million in cap space. That’s more than enough to acquire a pair of solid wing players and a backup center. Perhaps it amounts to Royce O’Neale, Caleb Martin, Andre Drummond and De’Anthony Melton, and they re-sign Oubre, Lowry, Payne, and Batum under all of the same terms that I’ve listed above.

That leaves the Sixers with a team of Maxey, O’Neale, Oubre, Grant, Embiid, Lowry, Payne, Melton, Martin, Batum and Drummond – plus, three leftover first round picks available to be used in trade within the next year. That’s a tough, rugged, physical team without too many old farts and a decent amount of flexibility moving forward. 

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Mike O’Connor is the best O’Connor in basketball writing. Previously of The Athletic, you can find Mike on Twitter @MOConnor_NBA. Mike’s writing is brought to you by Body Bio, supplements based on science, focusing on your gut and brain health. Get 20% off E-Lyte, Gut+, and all Body Bio products with promo code FIRECJ at Body Bio’s website.