You’ll have to pardon me for a second… AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Sorry, sorry. I just got done watching the Celtics become the first team in the play-by-play era to blow multiple 20-point leads in the playoffs. Funny what happens when you have to face full-strength teams in the playoffs for the first time in two years!
Yesterday, we asked you for your top Sixers-related offseason questions with the draft lottery fast approaching. I’ll be honest: Most of the comments were just schadenfreude about the Celtics. (I might have joined in, too.)
With that said, we did get a few non-Celtics-chokejob-related questions, so let’s dive right in! Don’t worry, we’ll return to Cus Crise at the end.
I love this question. Let’s start with the three stars mentioned here first and then branch out to a few other ideas.
The Phoenix Suns don’t have much by way of tradable rotation players. Grayson Allen ($16.9 million) would be too expensive for the Sixers unless Kelly Oubre Jr. opts in, and he wouldn’t fill a need anyway. Royce O’Neale ($10.1 million), Cody Martin ($8.7 million) and Nick Richards ($5.0 million) would be of more interest, although Martin and Richards’ contracts are non-guaranteed, so the Suns could waive them outright to trim their tax bill.
The Bucks are similarly devoid of helpful rotation players. I’d have zero interest in Pat Connaughton if he picks up his $9.4 million player option. AJ Green ($2.3 million, non-guaranteed) would be a nice bench shooter, but the Bucks aren’t in position to give up their few players under the age of 30 if they’re heading into a rebuild. Bobby Portis would be the only player of mild intrigue if he picks up his $13.4 million player option, although it’d be tough to make the money work without Oubre and Andre Drummond ($5 million player option).
The Pelicans are where things would get interesting. If the Sixers land the fifth or sixth pick in this year’s draft, would you send that pick and salary filler for Herb Jones ($13.9 million) and future draft considerations? The Sixers don’t have the salary to acquire Trey Murphy III ($25.0 million) unless they’re sending out one of Paul George or Joel Embiid, and Kelly Olynyk ($13.4 million) might even be a stretch, but Herb would be well worth a call at least.
The Houston Rockets are the other team I’d be eyeing for multi-team frameworks, provided that Tilman Fertitta is willing to trade with Daryl Morey. If the Sixers could acquire Tari Eason ($5.7 million) or Cam Whitmore ($3.5 million) while giving the Rockets more draft ammunition to trade for a superstar like Durant or Giannis, it might be a win-win.
Those are the types of deals that might make more sense—where they’re giving assets to the team acquiring the superstar rather than the one selling them. The big problem from the Sixers’ standpoint will be coming up with enough matching salary to avoid triggering a first-apron hard cap, which they’d do if they took back more salary in a trade than they sent out. Unless they land a top-six pick and are willing to part ways with it for a win-now rotation player, they might have to limit their search to players earning around $8 million or less.
Reporting on this has been mixed. Before Simmons got traded, Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the Kings had “considered packaging Buddy Hield, Tyrese Halibuton, Harrison Barnes and two first-round picks” for Simmons, Tobias Harris and Matisse Thybulle. However, a source told Pompey that the Sixers weren’t “interested in that package,” while another source said the Sixers hadn’t “received a formal trade offer.”
Shams Charania of The Athletic reported at the time that the Sixers did ask the Kings for Haliburton and “multiple first-round picks,” although he added that the Kings did “not plan to move De’Aaron Fox or Haliburton and want to build around them.” (They’d wind up trading Haliburton to the Pacers in a package for Domantas Sabonis a few weeks later.)
Long after the dust settled on the Simmons trade, there wasn’t much more clarity on the Haliburton-Simmons rumors. In May 2023, Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports reported that the Kings had put Haliburton “on the proverbial table” for Simmons. Two months later, longtime NBA insider Marc Stein rebutted that.
“Sources briefed on those trade talks insisted to The Stein Line last week that, contrary to persistent speculation about Sacramento’s reported interest in Ben Simmons back then, Philadelphia was not offered a Tyrese Haliburton-centric package for Simmons,” Stein wrote at the time. (Ironically, Stein and Fischer are now teammates at The Stein Line, which all NBA slop addicts should subscribe to.)
During an appearance on Podcast P (sigh), Haliburton confirmed that he caught wind of the rumors about the Sixers and even called Georges Niang to check if a deal was imminent. However, without specifically naming names, team president Daryl Morey told Anthony Gargano of 97.5 The Fanatic that the Sixers had “turned over every rock,” but the Harden trade “was really the only one available.”
“I think as evidence that we turned over every rock, there have been players recently who said they thought they were about to be traded by us,” he added. “And that’s because we had pushed very hard for those kinds of players. Unfortunately, those deals were never there, and we were thrilled that James [Harden] became available because we really had no other option.”
Does that clear things up?
Let’s start with the caveat that we have no idea about the current state of Embiid’s knee. Thanks to the Sixers’ relentless obfuscation, we likely never will. With that out of the way… that middle-of-the-road outcome very well could be within the realm of realistic possibilities.
Even if Embiid can’t reach his full-fledged MVP heights upon his return, his trade value is in the toilet right now because of his health. If he makes it through next season healthy, some team might be desperate enough to gamble on him in the summer of 2026, risks be damned. Multiple teams appear to be clearing their books for that offseason, so there may be a handful of legitimate suitors for him, particularly if they strike out on their Plan A.
There’s always the chance of a rebuilding team losing patience and looking to accelerate its return to the playoff mix, too. (Here’s looking at you, Charlotte Hornets.) Given the relationship between Embiid and Rockets head coach Ime Udoka, I can’t help but wonder whether they’d be a dark horse for him if they eventually decide to move off Alperen Şengün as well. (Again, provided that Fertitta is willing to trade with Morey.)
Embiid’s massive extension certainly did his trade value no favors. But with the salary cap likely to rise by 10 percent each of the next few years, it will take up slightly less of a team’s overall cap space with each passing season. Still, health is the paramount consideration. He’ll need to avoid major setbacks next season or he could become legitimately untradable.
This isn’t a question, but I did want to end on this for two reasons. First, to bask in the glory of the Celtics completely crapping their pants against the Knicks. Twice!
This should also serve as a reminder of how quickly things change in the NBA. A week ago, the Celtics were one of this year’s title favorites. Now, they’re two losses away from getting sent home in the conference semifinals, and they’ll need to win at least two games on the road to advance any further.
Losing before the conference finals would be a catastrophic setback for a team that’s staring down an NBA-record $500 million payroll and luxury-tax bill next season. Regardless of how the rest of this series plays out, the Celtics might not be able to run it back next year.
“The rest of the league is bracing for some level of change to come to the Celtics roster this offseason,” Charania recently said on the Pat McAfee Show. “Sources have been telling me for weeks now that the Celtics will be exploring trade options in the offseason. This iteration just is not gonna be sustainable.”
The Celtics masterfully manipulated the one-year grace period in 2023-24 as the new CBA got phased in, but the full array of penalties—including stiffer repeater-tax bills—will be in effect starting this offseason. Charania said the Celtics “knew when they traded for Jrue Holiday and they traded for Kristaps Porziņģis that they’d be staring at this in the face this summer,” but to their credit, they did at least cash in with a title in the meantime.
The Sixers often tailor their roster each offseason specifically with the Celtics in mind, as they’ve been a fixture in the deeper rounds of the playoffs for the past decade. This year, the Sixers might get a reprieve in that regard if the Celtics do sell off one of their big-name players. If anything, the gap between the two finally might shrink rather than widen. (Famous last words.)
That’s all for this week! Thanks as always for the questions, and we’ll be back next Wednesday either celebrating the lottery results or on a two-day tequila bender.
Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Salary Swish and salary-cap information via RealGM.
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