The Sixers’ Paul George cap-space dream scenario

With every playoff game that you’re forced to stomach at this point in the season, the Sixers “what if” lists grows.

What if they’d been the ones to trade for Pascal Siakam instead of the Indiana Pacers at the deadline? Would they still be competing? What if the Chicago Bulls hadn’t lost that one-point game on the final day of the regular season and the Sixers notched a No. 3 seed? Would they have defeated a Bucks’ squad without Giannis and a banged-up Damian Lillard? If so, might they be just picking up steam vs. a Knicks team that’s starting to run out of gas? Or a Pacers team that isn’t really all that scary? What if they didn’t have to face a Scott Foster-led officiating crew twice in six games, as well as the Goble crew that bungled the Game 2 ending?

What if....

And now all we’re left with is a much bigger what if. What if Paul George were willing to join the Sixers this offseason?

ESPN’s Senior Writer Brian Windhorst sounded confident when he declared: “The player at the top of [the 76ers’] list is Paul George.... I think that Philly is gonna come out with a max offer to Paul George and the Clippers are gonna have to decide max or not and Paul George is gonna have to decide do I wanna stay here or not.”

That means that by noon on July 6, there’s a non-zero chance we get that one wild Woj bomb.

I’d bet it would be a Sixers front office dream scenario. But why?

George is now 34 years young. He’ll turn 35 by the 2025 NBA playoffs. He’s missed more than 100 regular-season games over the last four seasons. He’s no longer (assuming he ever was) a 1A, and we’re not sure if he’ll age well enough to remain a top-tier No. 2. If Windy is right that Philly will come with a max it would mean committing four years and $212,205,000 guaranteed on the door of a dude so old, the league’s over 38 rule prevents the Clippers from even offering him a fifth year.

Our very own Bryan Toporek witnessed 27-year-old Donovan Mitchell average 31.7 points per game on 53.3% from distance in the first round, even snagging a road win at Boston where Spida was a game-high +38, and still argued against trading for him as a third star!

Bryan doesn’t even want Spida entering his prime and Dave, you want a dude who hasn’t shot over 37 percent from distance in a playoff run since the 2016-2017 postseason? A dude who literally once made a deep playoff run alongside Roy Hibbert, Lance Stephenson and Tyler Hansbrough!?

(Sighs). Guilty as charged. And here’s why.

The case for George

Desperate times call for desperate measures. I think the Sixers need to look at Joel Embiid’s prime right now as roughly a 2.5 year window and frontload it all towards this coming season.

The nine-time All-Star and six-time All-NBA talent can still play. Young Trece made the All-Star team the last two seasons. He averaged 22.6 points, 3.5 assists, 5.2 rebounds, 1.5 steals, .5 blocks per game while sinking over 41 percent from three this past year.

PG helped keep the Kawhi Leonard-less Clips afloat, even snagging two of the first four games vs. the Mavs this first round. PG threw back the clock draining 7-of-10 from distance for 33 points, to go with eight dimes, four steals and six boards in a massive road win in Game 4, where L.A. limited Luka Doncic to just 1-of-9 from distance.

It was impressive that PG and James Harden, a three-star team missing its head-of-the-snake in Leonard, put up such a decent fight against a team comprised of MVP candidate Doncic, All-Star Kyrie Irving, plus some well-rounded depth pieces in Dallas.

He wouldn’t take the ball out of Tyrese Maxey’s hands the way a Donovan Mitchell or a Jimmy Butler would likely want to do. He’s a seamless off-ball fit with the ability to create. He’s still a stud defender with a silky release.

The Sixers need a big, triple-threat, two-way star wing in the worst way possible. And PG could upend their entire future simply by pulling a Nick Foles and telling his agent, Aaron Mintz: “You want Philly Philly? Let’s do it.”

Ink a stud and retain up to five first-round picks

And here’s the biggest factor of all. George, assuming he doesn’t prefer to stay West, can be had for straight cash. Unlike non-free agents like Jimmy Butler or Brandon Ingram, whose names Windy also linked to Philadelphia, the Sixers could ink Playoff P and retain the five first-round picks (plus a few swaps) they’ll be eligible to trade on draft day.

By slotting in PG for a max, his new salary would begin at $49,350,000. With Joel Embiid, and Tyrese Maxey penciled in, the Sixers could still target players set to earn roughly $16.7M in 2024-2025.

Feel free to browse through names like OKC’s Lu Dort ($16.5M), Washington’s Deni Avdija ($15.6M), Brooklyn’s Dorian Finney-Smith $14.9M), Bulls’ Alex Caruso ($9.8M), Charlotte’s Cody Martin ($8.2M).

They could even afford to roster Caruso plus either of Toronto’s Grady Dick ($4.76M) or Minny’s Nickeil Alexander-Walker ($4.3M) and another minimum-salaried player in this PG scenario.

Hell, Daryl Morey could do what he does best and make outlandish calls offering up to five-firsts and a few swaps for any big-time names like Cade Cunningham, Jalen Green, Scottie Barnes, Herb Jones, Scoot Henderson or Jaden Ivey. Go crazy with it as long as it stays under $16.7M, and you understand it would only leave you with one $8M Room Exception and a stack of $2.1M veteran minimum or two-way signings for the rest of the roster.

But that part is sort of Morey’s specialty. If they found names like Georges Niang a couple of years ago, and names like Kyle Lowry and Kelly Oubre, Jr. more recently with minimum deals, maybe they wouldn’t totally strike out in this scenario either?

Or you could use the remaining space to keep a few names on the team already, and maintain at least some continuity — while basically swapping out Tobias Harris for a nine-time All-Star.

If the Sixers did something like this above, while retaining their draft capital, you could bet that their name would pop up months before the 2025 NBA Trade deadline next winter in connection to any potential big names made available; as long as they were on a mid-salary 2025 deal.

PG may not be as good as Donovan Mitchell or Jimmy Butler at this point in his career. I wouldn’t be surprised if he aged better than Jimmy, though, given his ability to really shoot it. But he’s a better fit than both, and still a significantly better player than Brandon Ingram.

And most importantly, unlike those names, PG could be landed for straight up cash — leaving Morey all his picks to go either big-game hunting or seek a top-notch role-player or two with. And this is probably why Windy is right, that the Sixers are planning to offer PG a max at the dawn of free agency.

I’ve yet to see a path laid out I prefer to this one. The drop-off after the top free agents are signed gets pretty dicey fast.

So I say ask not what PG can do for you — ask what you can do with PG and five picks?