FanPost

My ideal future and present team for the Sixers

Hey All,

Over the last few weeks I have thought long and hard about how best the Sixers could go about the draft and FA to maximize not only our future but our present as well. With help from other peoples posts, ideas, and the capulator I have come up with what I think is one of the best teams the Sixers can come up with to not only compete now but have some young players that can develop along with Simmons and Embiid and have a higher ceiling than just a bench role player. I posted this idea in another fan posts comments section but felt like making my own fan post with it and can further elaborate on some of the decisions here that I didn't want to do in the comments. So without further ado, here are my ideal moves for the Sixers.

At the draft:


Trade 24 and Micic to the Spurs for 19
The Spurs have already expressed interest in Micic and they get to stay in the 1st round, Sixers move up in order to make another trade that is about to happen, easier. Even if the Sixers in real life don't do my second trade I think making this Spurs one is a no brainer, moving up from 24 to 19 gives us so many more options on who we can take and not really be left with the feeling of okay who is left. Seems like a win win for both teams to me.

Trade 19 and 33 to the Magic for 16
The Magic move back a couple spots and pick up and early 2nd round for their rebuilding. A little bit of an overpay probably for us but we get the guy who can be our starting 2 guard we have been looking for.
Draft Nickeil Alexander-Walker with the 16th pick, this guy can shoot, defend, and pass does nothing amazingly yet but wont really hurt you anywhere. Ideal young 3 and D guy who we can slot into our starting 2 guard role and would fit in well with our offense and our other starters.

Now that we have spend Micic, the 24th pick, and the 33rd pick to get Alexander-Walker we still have the 34th pick, 42nd pick, and 54th pick to deal with in the draft. At this time it is getting late into the 1st round and we are going to be making one last trade for this draft.

Trade 34 and 54 with the Bucks for 30
The Bucks I am sure are looking to keep as much money off their salary cap before FA as possible so they can resign everyone they want from this past team so they move back from the end of the 1st a couple spots to the beginning of the 2nd round and pick up another 2nd round pick. We want to add salary so we don’t have to spend MLE money on 2nd round picks or have to sign them to 2 year deals so combining two 2nd round picks for a 1st round pick sounds like a good move. Seems like a win-win again for both teams.
Draft Chuma Okeke with the 30th pick, good 3pt shooter and defender who won’t be ready for a few months to play but we don't need him to be ready right away and he can sit on the end of the bench and take his time rehabbing, possibly play in some G league games and work on developing for next year. At 30 with his potential ceiling is good value.

This leaves us with the 42nd pick left where there are a number of guys who I would be okay with drafting here, Ponds, Obiesie, Guy, Porter, King, Roby, Gafford. Probably if I had to pick just one guy here and he would be here it would be Gafford but I don't know if he lasts this long so I will go with King here as a guy we might be able to turn into a 3 and D guy but more likely turn into a 3pt shooter off the bench.

So after the draft our team currently looks as such. It looks good so far to me, we have 3 of our 5 starters locked in already with some nice young depth in Smith, Bolden, and Okeke that when healthy can combined probably play 2-5 which is good to have that kind of flexibility. With the draft over, lets move to the offseason!
PG: B. Simmons
SG: Alexander-Walker, Smith
SF: J. Simmons
PF: Bolden, Okeke
C: Embiid

2 way deal: Highsmith, King

In the offseason:

Jonathan Simmons is immediately waived and stretched! This is a no-brainer, he's not that good of a player and we can't use his 5.5mil salary number until January to trade him and he would be taking up valuable salary cap and a roster spot so he will be waived and stretch so we only need to pay 333k for the next 3 years which is doable.


We max Butler and near max Harris, right off the bat we don’t mess around with this. Butler get his max which is to no surprise but Harris though takes a bit of a pay cut so we can use some of the money to resign his buddy Boban. In return however since he is helping out the team and his friend, his agent asks for something in return, his 5th year is a player option so he has the choice to leave and pursue another big contract if he wants. I have no issues with giving him this in return for taking below the max.


We release JJs cap hold. With us drafting Alexander-Walker to be our starter who can do everything we are looking for a 2 guard to do with our other starters and having Smith and probably Milton behind him as young depth to develop, I just don’t see space for JJ at the cap hit he will bring. He is probably going to be offered 11+mil for 1-3 years from some team since he is still one of the best shooters probably top 5-10 in the league and it would be nice to keep him for that shooting off the bench but that cap number is too high for what our current team is trying to do which is stay under the apron and get that non-tax payer MLE and BAE.


Boban Marjanovic gets a 2 year 5 mil deal, just an end of the bench big that we know we can run out there in the regular season and against certain match ups in the playoffs and be efffective. Also keeping him gets Harris to want to stay a little more and some of his contract is basically paid by Harris. Someone might try to overpay for him but I think Boban would like to stay here with Harris and would need to be blown away with an offer to leave.


Sign Kosta Koufos to a 2 year 5.2mil vet min deal with the 2nd year being a team option, he’s a solid player and good defender that can be our main back up big to Embiid for the playoffs when the match up isn't favorable for Boban. I don't think anyone is going to look to pay him a lot so this seems reasonable to happen. I would also accept Kyle O'Quinn here as well if he were willing to sign the vet min but I have a feeling he might get a little more than that from someone. We can also get out of the deal a year early if we want to replace his roster spot with someone else.


Sign Darren Collison with our MLE to a 3 year 23.6mil deal, solid back up PG that isn’t a liability on defense and can shoot the 3 really well so he can be out there with anyone on the team. This deal I think is reasonable and could happen as he is 32 already the money is decent for a lead bench guy and he gets the security of the 3 years. I don't think a team would be offering much more than this to Collison but there is a lot of money out there in FA and you never know. If this fails maybe we can still get someone like Beverly for that money or Jospeh. Then there are cheaper options out there like Rondo or Payton and we get to save some MLE money.


Demarre Carroll with our BAE 1 year 3.5mil deal, hes getting up there in age and don’t think he would be offered much so this deal could be reasonable as well and he might want to finally be on a championship roster. Can be a decent SF off the bench that can shoot the 3.


TJ McConnell gets a 2 year 5mil deal, just an end of the bench guy who like Boban can soak up some regular season minutes and help coach the new guys about the offense and be a good leader in the locker room.


Mike Scott gets a 2 year 10mil deal with the 2nd year being a team option, just more depth and can shoot the 3. He can also be used as a trade contract if need be around the deadline if we need a specific player or type of player. We can also get out of the deal a year early if we want to replace his roster spot with someone else.


Lastly we use the remaining 1.6mil of our MLE to sign Shake Milton to a 3 year deal with the 3rd year being a team option, more depth that might develop into more than that.

So after all of that our final roster will look as such. It has a good balance of vets and young players to still develop. a few above average 3pt shooting with Harris, Carroll, Collison, Scott but for the most part half of the roster should be able to shoot the 3 around league average. This team is also long and have a lot of players that can play and defend multiple positions which we lacked last year. This team is also about 2.7mil under the tax apron so we would still have the ability to sign someone to a vet min contract or in the buyout market if we wanted to. Also below is a link to my capulator so everyone can see that this team is legal. Just one thing to note is that since I can't add a 2nd 1st round pick to the capulator for this year just take the apron room money and subtract 2mil from it for Okeke's contract.

PG: Simmons, Collison, TJ
SG: Alexander-Walker, Smith, Milton
SF: Butler, Carroll, Scott
PF: Harris, Bolden, Okeke
C: Embiid, Koufos, Boban

2 way deal: Highsmith, King

http://www.shamsports.com/capulator?id=2745829545d03f22de0074332844560

Let me know your guys thoughts about my idea. Is it a good idea/team? Any of these moves look unreasonable or you don't think would happen? Anyone in FA you would rather have in one of those spots and would accept the deal I have? Cannot wait for next Thursday. Lets go Sixers!

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