CAMDEN, N.J.–The Philadelphia 76ers now have to move forward following their third consecutive second-round exit at the hands of the Boston Celtics. The Sixers were unable to get the job done either at home in Game 6 or on the road in Game 7.
They now turn their attention to what they believe will be a lengthy coaching search as well as free agency. The Sixers will have some important players hit free agency, most notably James Harden, and they are going to have to decide how they are going to handle things.
President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey will now have to figure out how to improve this roster. Especially, if Harden does return. They will have to find the right pieces around him and Joel Embiid to help them get over the hump.
“We have to plan for every scenario, right?” Morey said. “And for sure he (Harden) has the option to be a free agent. So we have to plan for all those scenarios and we feel like that’s a scenario we can continue to move forward. Look, we have to remember there’s like 26 teams that would rather have our roster starting with the MVP of the league.”
Morey isn’t wrong about the starting point of the roster. The Sixers possess Embiid who is coming off a phenomenal MVP season and if they can bring back Harden, they will have the player who led the league in scoring (Embiid) and the player who led the league in assists (Harden). That’s a pretty solid starting point.
“The draft lottery was hoping to get a top pick to hope that player becomes as good as the MVP of the league,” Morey continued. “We start in a great spot and yeah, we’re gonna have a lot of free agents, so we’re gonna lose some free agents. There’s some key ones we’d like to bring back, but we feel good about the alternate scenarios as well. Scenario A would be to bring James back. Scenario B, if he’s not back, we’ll have to get creative and we feel good about the tools available to us if that happens.”
Besides Harden, some notable free agents for the Sixers include Jalen McDaniels, Georges Niang, Paul Reed, and Shake Milton. One has to assume that Reed will almost certainly be back, but it will be interesting to see if McDaniels, Niang, or Milton will be back.
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