We\u2019re nearly a month into free agency, and LeBron James still hasn\u2019t decided where he\u2019s signing for next season. What\u2019s the holdup?<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Kevin O\u2019Connor of Yahoo Sports floated one theory.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe popular theory around the league is that LeBron has been slow-playing his decision to see if any of his suitors could find a way to land [Kyrie] Irving or [Anthony] Davis,\u201d O\u2019Connor wrote<\/a>. \u201cIf a team proved capable of acquiring one of his championship teammates, sources say, it might sway him in that direction.\u201d<\/p>\n However, ESPN\u2019s Shams Charania rebuffed that idea Thursday<\/a> during an appearance on the Pat McAfee Show.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom my understanding, my sources tell me LeBron James, his agent Rich Paul, that inner circle, they\u2019re not waiting for another domino right now,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re not waiting for Anthony Davis to get traded anywhere. They\u2019re not waiting for anybody else to move around.\u201d<\/p>\n O\u2019Connor was the first to report<\/a> about the Golden State Warriors\u2019 interest in trading for Davis and signing LeBron, which Charania later confirmed<\/a>. Although Marc J. Spears of Andscape reported<\/a> that the Washington Wizards were \u201cnot listening to offers\u201d for Davis at the time\u2014and Charania told McAfee on Thursday<\/a> that \u201cthose conversations for AD have gone nowhere for the Warriors\u201d\u2014that could change if the Wizards can\u2019t come to terms on an extension with Davis once he becomes eligible on Aug. 6<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are rumblings he\u2019s demanding that full max from Washington but would sign for less if traded to a contender,\u201d O\u2019Connor wrote Wednesday. \u201cThat is why not every source is convinced the Wizards will ultimately keep him.\u201d<\/p>\n That begs the question: Should the Sixers explore what it would cost to acquire Davis if he could help them land LeBron as well? What would a trade even look like?<\/p>\n The end of the Embiid era<\/p>\n From the Sixers\u2019 perspective, a Davis trade would be fairly straightforward. Unless they were willing to offload the newly acquired Jaylen Brown as part of the deal, they\u2019d have to use Joel Embiid ($58.0 million) as the main salary match for Davis ($58.5 million).<\/p>\n Since the Sixers are under the first apron, they are able to take back more salary than they send out in a trade. An Embiid-for-Davis swap would be legal for both the Sixers and Wizards, although it would add roughly $470,000 to the Sixers\u2019 books. That might sound relatively inconsequential, but the Sixers are only $3.4 million below<\/a> the first apron at the moment and can\u2019t cross that line this season.<\/p>\n The bigger question is what else the Sixers would have to include.<\/p>\n After trading their 2031 first-round pick along with whatever the hell this is in 2028<\/a> for Brown, the Sixers are limited in which first-rounders they\u2019re allowed to trade. The Stepien Rule prevents teams from being without a first-round pick in back-to-back drafts, which means the Sixers can\u2019t trade their 2027 or 2029 picks for now due to the possibility of them being pick-less in 2028. They also can\u2019t trade their 2030 or 2032 picks since they owe the 2031 one to Boston, which means their 2033 first-round pick is the only one that they could trade.<\/p>\n The Sixers could offer pick swaps in 2027, 2029, 2030 and\/or 2032, so they aren\u2019t completely without currency. They also have control of virtually all of their second-round picks\u2014they only owe a 2030 second-rounder to New York, along with a 2032 second-round swap with Memphis. They\u2019re also owed two additional second-round picks in both 2027 and 2028 and one in 2030, which gives them as many as nine tradable seconds. (They can\u2019t trade their own 2028 second-round pick, as it\u2019s tied up conditionally in the first-round pick that they might owe to Brooklyn.)<\/p>\n The Wizards gave up a late 2026 first-round pick, a top-20-protected 2030 first-round pick (via the Warriors) and three second-rounders to acquire Davis at the trade deadline. Would the Sixers be able to acquire him for a similar price? That depends on the Wizards\u2019 appetite to absorb Embiid\u2019s contract.<\/p>\n Embiid is just beginning a three-year, $187.9 million extension. Davis is in the second year of his three-year, $175.4 million deal. He\u2019s earning $58.5 million this year and has a $62.8 million player option in 2027-28.<\/p>\n Granted, if the Wizards are open to giving Davis a long-term max or near-max extension, they might not see Embiid\u2019s contract as completely radioactive. After all, they\u2019re already pot-committed to paying an oft-injured big man roughly $60 million over each of the next two seasons. If anything, Embiid might give them an earlier Get Out of Contract Jail Free card since this figures to be his last max contract.<\/p>\n Would it be worth giving up the Sixers\u2019 last tradable first-round pick and Embiid for Davis? That depends on whether it would get them LeBron, along with Davis\u2019 expectations for an extension. Signing him to a four-year max extension would raise some thorny long-term financial issues for the Sixers in a few years.<\/p>\n Should the Sixers throw long-term caution to the wind if they can roll out a starting five of Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe, Brown, LeBron and Davis, though? What if that comes at the expense of building around Maxey and Edgecombe in a few years?<\/p>\n If Davis\u2019 future truly has no bearing on LeBron\u2019s, as Charania said Thursday, then this is a non-issue. But if LeBron drags out his decision until August, this is a conversation worth having in the days leading up to when Davis becomes eligible to sign an extension with the Wizards.<\/p>\n Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com<\/a>, PBPStats<\/a>, Cleaning the Glass<\/a> or Basketball Reference<\/a>. All salary information via Spotrac<\/a> and salary-cap information via RealGM<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We\u2019re nearly a month into free agency, and LeBron James still hasn\u2019t decided where he\u2019s signing for next…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":796880,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3780],"tags":[7,6,44484,5902,682,468,3892,683],"class_list":["post-796879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-washington-wizards","tag-basketball","tag-nba","tag-nba-rumors-and-news","tag-sixers-analysis","tag-washington","tag-washington-wizards","tag-washingtonwizards","tag-wizards"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116990678399740257","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=796879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/796880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=796879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=796879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=796879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}