Tuesday 2 July 2019 13:01, UK
The Philadelphia 76ers have made the most of their good fortune in free agency and have come out far ahead of most expectations, writes Sky Sports NBA analyst Mark Deeks.
NBA free agency: team-by-team signings
The Philadelphia 76ers entered this offseason with a clear-cut 'Big Four' of star players, but with two of them bound for free agency.
Which players will be playing for new teams in the 2019/20 season?
The long period of transition known as The Process left the franchise with Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons, a management vacancy and a whole bunch of draft assets with which to potentially acquire future stars. New management promptly did that when they traded Robert Covington, Dario Saric and Jerryd Bayless to Minnesota in exchange for Jimmy Butler, as well as Landry Shamet, Mike Muscala and myriad draft picks to the Los Angeles Clippers in exchange for Tobias Harris, Mike Scott and Boban Marjanovic over the course of last season.
Butler has been an All-Star for some years now, and Harris has been extremely close over the last couple. With those two deals in hand, the 76ers assembled their 'Big Four', in theory putting them straight into the realm of genuine title contenders.
In putting the team together on such short notice, though, the 76ers were never able to realise this potential in time to be that this past season. Although they came only one miracle shot by Kawhi Leonard away from a Game 7 overtime in the Eastern Conference semi-finals against the eventual champion Toronto Raptors, they were never firing on full cylinders at that time, and a lack of roster balance and reliable depth proved costly.
And the problem was that Butler and Harris were both headed for free agency this summer.
The measure of the 76ers' offseason, then, would be how much of the team could they run back. If either of them were to leave, the assets would have been burned, the poor bench depth only further exposed, and the short-term window would have closed with it not being obvious how to re-open it any time soon.
Should Butler or Harris seek new pastures, the hope would be that the 76ers could get at least something useful for them in a sign-and-trade. Yet with no control over that, the team was at an awkward crossroads - they could pitch maximum contracts to both of them, yet were leaving a lot to chance.
However, they got lucky. And on top of that, they were also good.
The luck came with Butler's decision. Opting not to re-sign with the team, Butler had multiple other suitors, yet he wanted to go to the Miami Heat. The Heat had long been in pursuit of Butler, but they are entirely capped-out, and could only get him via a trade. This meant a sign-and-trade, and that gave Philadelphia back some leverage.
NBA free agency: Miami Heat complete four-team trade for Jimmy Butler
If Butler only wanted to go Miami, and if the Heat had no other realistic ways of adding significant talent, they would have to offer something of value to Philadelphia for their complicity. Now, the Sixers could call some shots.
In the sign-and-trade that resulted, Philadelphia were able to get back Josh Richardson, an extremely solid two-way player signed to a very favourable long-term deal. Able to play all across the point guard, shooting guard and small forward positions, Richardson can defend all those spots to an above-average level, is a better ball-handler than many wings (having experience of being a primary offensive player), and improving each season in the NBA as being a go-to half-court scorer.
He is essentially the mini-Butler, and in being able to grow the deal between them and the Heat to become a four-way trade featuring the Portland Trail Blazers and Los Angeles Clippers, the 76ers were able to ensure that Richardson's deal was the only one they received back.
Shortly after free agency commenced on Sunday night, the Sixers and Harris agreed a five-year deal worth, according to multiple reports, $180m. With Butler gone, Harris can expect a bigger role in Philadelphia's offense. For a player who has played for five teams in his eight NBA seasons, Harris will likely appreciate the stability of a long-term deal.
Butler's departure to South Beach also opened up some cap space. And this meant that the team that entered the offseason under the cloud of 'how much talent will they lose?' instead had the ability to gain.
This they did when they signed one of the most coveted players on the market. Al Horford, All-Star center most recently of the Boston Celtics, made the surprising move to his cross-conference rival and signed a four-year deal that will take him through likely to the end of his career.
And with that, the team that thought it might lose an All-Star instead essentially swapped one All-Star for another, and added one of the NBA's best value two-way role players along the way. At consolidation summers go, they have come out far ahead of most expectations.
There may be issues of roster balance considering that Horford and Embiid play the same position, and also concerns over crunch-time execution; the fact that crunch-time situations require elite playmaking and shot-making guards and wings moreso than bigs was part of the reason for the acquisition of Butler, given that Simmons does not have this ability, and replacing him with Horford and Richardson reopens that vacancy.
Yet given Embiid's need for load management going forward (and Horford similarly benefitting from strategic rest as he ages), they can be mitigated.
The important takeaway is that the 76ers still have just as high of a talent level on their roster, if not higher than before, and they now have team control over the future of that talent.
More importantly, and far more positively, the defensive potential within the core of Simmons, Embiid, Harris, Horford, Richardson, the subsequent depth signing of quality reserve big man Kyle O'Quinn, first-round draft pick Matisse Thybulle, last year's first-round pick Zhaire Smith and fellow reserves TJ McConnell and Jonah Bolden is ridiculous.
Harris is probably the second-weakest individual defensive player within that group, behind only O'Quinn, and by no means is he bad.
Horford's timeline does not really accord with the others. As he enters the latter stages of his career, Harris is entering his prime, and Embiid and Simmons are still far short of theirs.
A certain strand of conventional thinking would hold that it would perhaps be more ideal to have the timelines of your best players all match up so that they can grow together.
Then again, this is a double-edged sword with potential upside; after all, hierarchical questions were partly behind the Butler tension, and if a veteran like Horford is more conducive to a reduced and declining role (particularly offensively), the transition should be smooth. Horford has never been known for being prickly, after all.
NBA free agency: Horford joins 76ers, Harris re-signs
Philadelphia's 'Big Four' has now become the 'Really Big Four', both in terms of the sheer size of the line-up, and the potential offered up by the new-found team control.
And while it is not for nothing that an argument can be made that the team's three best players may all play best at the same center position once Simmons is included - leading to lots of roster-balancing questions further exacerbated by the loss of JJ Redick to the New Orleans Pelicans - the 76ers will come out of this offseason ahead.
They might not necessarily be better for it immediately, yet in locking in both Harris and Horford, they can now plan more than hope.
It's better to be lucky than good. But if you can, always be both.
