Welcome to the final Sixers mailbag before Monday, May 12, when we will find out once and for all if the Sixers will go to the 2025 NBA Draft armed with a top-six pick in addition to the No. 35 overall selection, or if they will only be able to utilize their second-round pick next month.
Let's get to your questions…
From @JeremyPease2: Should the Sixers treat the Los Angeles Clippers' 2028 unprotected first-round pick as untouchable?
When news broke before the start of the 2024-25 season that Clippers star Kawhi Leonard was out indefinitely, I wrote that the Sixers should not put the picks they received in the James Harden trade the year prior on the table in any future trade discussions. The Sixers have the Clippers' unprotected first-rounder in 2028 and top-three protected first-round swap rights in 2029.
Part of my calculus was that, because of the structure of the Sixers' salary cap sheet as constructed at the time, there was not going to be a player they could reasonably acquire whose value rises to the level of it being worth dealing the kind of draft assets with the chance to serve as a lifeline for the team in a post-Joel Embiid world. And even after the Clippers enjoyed an exciting 50-win season — ending in a disappointing Game 7 blowout loss to the Denver Nuggets on Saturday — there is still a real chance those picks end up helping the Sixers bridge to the next era of their organization.
The Clippers were terrific this season, but they did it on the backs of Leonard, who will be 34 next season and is never a strong bet to stay healthy, and James Harden, who will be in his age-36 season in 2025-26. Neither player is under contract for the 2027-28 season, and if they do end up with the team at that point, one would expect they will have declined even more leading up to that campaign.
But the Clippers are in Los Angeles, have an unfathomably incredible arena that has been jaw-dropping to players around the league, and could open up major cap space to find new franchise cornerstones before the 2027-28 season happens. They have the richest owner in the sport in Steve Ballmer, who has not just the resources to spend but the competitiveness and desire to push for solutions. However, the Clippers also have almost no young talent on their roster, with zero control of their draft picks leading up to these two commitments to the Sixers at the end of the decade. They could hit a home run in their potential star-hunting in 2027, but if they strike out they will be in a massively difficult position.
So, untouchable? Probably not, particularly if the Sixers could find a deal that sheds the remaining years of the Paul George contract while also bringing back the sort of talent that could keep them from experiencing a real on-court decline without the nine-time All-Star. But it would take something like that for me to be on board, given the sheer upside of effectively having two years of control over the Clippers' first-round picks.
MORE: Could Sixers use trade exceptions this summer?
From @kellenpastore.bsky.social: How do the Sixers account for Joel Embiid's knee in this offseason? Do they need to be patient to make sure his recovery goes well, or they just need to embrace a large amount of risk by being aggressive in transactions?
There is no way around this: accounting for the fact that a player is potentially incapable of playing on a consistent basis is not really possible when that player is earning $248 million over the next four seasons in a league with a salary cap. Teams only have so many resources available to them each year, and the Sixers are never going to be significantly competitive with Embiid on this contract if he is not playing.
However, the reality for the Sixers is that this contract is on their books and Embiid's knee instability may not go away. Anything they can do to give him optimal chances of full recovery should be the priority, but ultimately, that largely falls on the team's medical staff and not its basketball operations department.
Any half-measured approach to addressing a team-building conundrum is usually one I will not be in favor of, but in this scenario, the full throttle solutions seem futile or even reckless. Building the team around the anticipation of Embiid's return to peak form is dangerous, leaving it liable to the sort of horrid collapse it experienced when he missed 63 of the team's games in 2024-25. But operating as if he is never going to be consistently available again places a pretty noteworthy cap on how good the team can become due to his contract and the nature of the team's salary cap sheet.
How do they meet in the middle? Perhaps it is just investing more in the backup center than other teams do and not exclusively signing role players who are pristine fits alongside Embiid and the optimized version of the team.
Sixers President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey said in his joint exit interview with head coach Nick Nurse last month that one of his personal flaws this season when assembling a supporting cast of players around Embiid and the team's other stars was putting too much stock in playoff value and not enough in actually ensuring the team gets to the playoffs. This feels like a way to change that line of thinking.
MORE: Can you name every player to appear in a game for the 2024-25 Sixers?
From @DShort1975: How important do you see them keeping this pick? I think it’s almost essential if there is low confidence in the current team ever advancing. This would provide a ‘soft landing’ to build around Tyrese Maxey, Jared McCain and the lottery pick. If no pick, could be a painful eventual rebuild.
There is nothing to say other than this: the Sixers have a far greater discrepancy between upside and downside than any other team that will have a representative on stage in Chicago on Monday evening.
The basketball and team-building reasons are obvious. Even without acknowledging that this year’s class includes a potentially generational player at the top and a stellar lead guard right behind him, just having the No. 6 overall pick would do wonders for this organization. As you point out, at the very least the Sixers can add an extremely talented young player to a nucleus including 24-year-old Tyrese Maxey, 21-year-old Jared McCain and 24-year-old Quentin Grimes. If the Embiid situation never gets better and George fails to improve after his massively disappointing debut season in Philadelphia, the Sixers would at least have bolstered an impressive collection of young players, which can help them transition to whatever is next for the franchise.
And then there is the emotional side of it. The general apathy surrounding the Sixers was greater this season than it has been in nearly a decade, with many fans checking out amid a disastrous, injury-plagued campaign. While winning the lottery and being able to draft Cooper Flagg is the only scenario in which the fan base could feel genuinely rejuvenated, just being able to say this nightmarish 24-58 season actually netted something positive long-term would give many a lift.
Frankly, if the Sixers lose their pick, that apathy will grow substantially and rapidly. After years of hoping their team would maintain its status as championship contenders, lots of fans around these parts are just not interested in anything beneath that — especially while the Eagles exemplify the sort of sustained excellence that the Sixers appear to be losing their grasp of.
There is a lot on the line on Monday.
SIXERS YEAR-IN-REVIEW
Joel Embiid | Guerschon Yabusele | Paul George | Jared McCain | Tyrese Maxey | Andre Drummond | Quentin Grimes | Jared Butler | Kyle Lowry | Kelly Oubre Jr. | Justin Edwards | Ricky Council IV | Eric Gordon | Lonnie Walker IV | Adem Bona
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