Report: Paul George 'player at the top of [Sixers] list'; Butler, Ingram names to watch as well

After the Sixers were eliminated, 118-115, by the New York Knicks, in front of (mostly) their own fans on Thursday night, fans got one night's sleep before the offseason rumor mill began chugging.

ESPN Senior Insider Brian Windhorst dropped an unsurprising bomb on us, saying he thinks the Sixers, who have ample cap space and draft picks to work with this summer (following the James Harden trade), will offer a four-year max contract to L.A. Clippers' nine-time All-Star Paul George.

"The player at the top of their list is Paul George."@WindhorstESPN thinks the Sixers are going to give PG-13 a max contract offer in free agency, and will look to monitor Jimmy Butler and Brandon Ingram's situations pic.twitter.com/bRVVY1XeeO

— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) May 3, 2024

Paul George

Per Windy on ESPN's Get Up:

"The player at the top of [the 76ers'] list is Paul George. His contract extension discussions with the Clippers have not led to an agreement, the Clippers are fighting for their playoff lives [Friday] in Dallas. [The Clippers] have not wanted to offer the max contract. They got Kawhi [Leonard] to accept an extension less than the max that has been the standard. 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."

It doesn't seem in character for Clips' owner Steve Ballmer (net worth estimated around $119B, the wealthiest owner in the NBA by far) to suddenly begin penny-pinching. But the way Windy puts it, maybe there is truly a hesitation to offer PG a max?!

The Clippers are getting their own stadium, and they just extended Kawhi Leonard, who is hurt yet again. There is a lot for them to consider, but I would be a bit baffled if they ultimately decided PG wasn't worth hanging onto.

If I had Ballmer's money, I would have written PG's max-check 12 months ago and just left it on the shelf for the first day of free agency; the same way I occasionally throw out pennies and nickels I can't be bothered to stash in a drawer.

If you really want to cut costs that badly, maybe let a guy like James Harden walk instead of one of the best two-way wings in the sport?

Now, we learned one year ago that Harden wasn't actually eligible for a five-year max because he's of a certain vintage. PG turned 34 years old Thursday May 2. The Over 38 Rule applies to contracts that cover four-to-five seasons, one of which begins after the player turns 38.

Therefore the Clippers don't maintain that usual "we can offer a fifth year" trump card. The only edge they have is a slightly larger annual increase.

In the end, the Sixers can offer PG four years, $212,205,000, while the Clips can offer four years, $221,088,000. That's only an $8.88M difference.

If George really valued living in his hometown of L.A., and not having to bother with the hassle of relocating, if he still believed Kawhi Leonard's 32-year-old body will hold up (relative to Joel Embiid's), perhaps he'd opt to stay.

He might well prefer to stay if Ballmer steps up to the plate.

But if PG felt miffed at this notion Windy puts forth that they don't want to offer him a max, if he thinks winning a championship is most important and he'd have a better chance to do that alongside Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey, well, maybe he'd hop ship.

You could worry yourself sick about the way George's own body will age or how the Sixers might look to flesh out their remaining roster around a big three in a new salary cap era, but those are luxury problems. PG is still a top dawg in this league. If he wants to leave, and if he would even consider Philly over teams like the Knicks or Heat, just throw the party.

See, there's this other problem. PG is a CAA client, and repped by Aaron Mintz, who teamed up with Sam Rose, Knicks' President Leon Rose's son bringing Jalen Brunson to the Knicks back in 2022.

"I think the Knicks and Sixers aren't done competing with each other."

—@alanhahn thinks the free agency race to land Paul George could be the next Knicks vs. Sixers battle pic.twitter.com/tAF3x8tcsj

— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) May 3, 2024

If I were setting the betting markets for where PG lands, I'd say him staying put is highly likely, him jumping ship for a non-Sixers team is semi-likely, and him landing in Philly is unlikely.

But I will still dream of winning a PG sweepstakes, and others can put forth counter- arguments I probably won't be persuaded by for why it wouldn't be better to have him anyway. Then if PG stays put or goes to the Knicks, we'll see who was right over the next few years.

Jimmy Butler

The next name Windy mentioned is a very, very familiar one: Jimmy Buckets.

Windy continued on ESPN's The GetUp:

"But you don't just have to use cap space on free agents, you can use it in trade. And this is where I think Daryl Morey is gonna go to work. There's gonna be a number of names that are gonna come up but I'm gonna give you two off the bat here: both involve players who can get extensions with their teams but for various reasons will not.

The first name to watch is Jimmy Butler from the Miami Heat. He has got two years left on his contract. There is interest in him extending. And you may remember, and I know the Sixers fans do, the Sixers chose this Tobias Harris contract instead of paying Jimmy Butler five years ago, well, that contract is up. If Jimmy Butler wants to extend and the Heat are not willing to do it, facing heavy luxury tax penalties, is there a way to revisit that? Remember [the Sixers] have assets from the James Harden trade that they can use in addition to cap space."

Daryl Morey would have to get pretty creative in order to onboard a player set to earn $94M over the next two seasons. Butler, who will turn 35 years old this coming September has been one of the five best playoff performers in the NBA over the last half-decade or so.

One could argue that the only players who've outplayed Jimmy in a playoff series since the start of the 2018-2019 season all went on to win NBA Finals MVP (Kawhi Leonard, Giannis, LeBron James, Nikola Jokic).

How would this work? Well, as long as the Sixers stay under the cap after completing a trade, they don't need to send any salary back to Miami. With that said, I'd imagine the Heat would want players back for Butler, so it'd likely have to be a three-team deal. They can't take back any of the Sixers' FAs via sign-and-trade if Miami were over either tax apron.

But there was this intriguing, almost mysterious, seemingly conflictive string of sentences from Windhorst on Butler.

First, Windy says "...both involve [Butler and Ingram] who can get extensions with their teams but for various reasons will not."

And then a moment later Windy says: "[Butler] has got two years left on his contract. There is interest in him extending."

So is it fair to infer that Butler wants an extension but Miami simply won't give him one? And Windy already knows as much? And if that's the case are we looking at a one-year stalemate before he's on an expiring deal? Or would Butler feel disrespected enough to ask for a trade this summer?

After all, the dude carried this franchise to two Finals berths in three seasons, and three Conference Finals berths in a four-season stretch, donning the raspberry and black. Between not wanting to pay him, and perhaps the idea that he may have a better shot at a title in Philly, could a return be in the cards?

You know I'd take one if PG couldn't be had for straight cash.

Brandon Ingram

Finally, and I know this is almost humorous after discussing the last two dudes, but Windy names Brandon Ingram.

Hello welcome to Van Leeuwen, would you like to try honeycomb caramel, malted cookie-dough or our new fermented sauerkraut ice cream?

Just kidding, I do still think Ingram is a good player. And it's not impossible he'd straight up outplay the older stars above over the next four seasons.

But he's in that tier where you start to wonder if having a "third star" may not be better than having a lot of depth. Whereas the two dudes above would both easily be worth the cost of admission to complement Joel and Maxey. We don't know how much time Joel has left. I'd be all in for the next two seasons if I'm Morey. I wonder if Ingram is still more of an unknown, unquantifiable commodity, or if Nick Nurse would just have him leveling up like he does Maxey and Kelly Oubre, Jr.

Per Windy:

"Also another player to watch, Brandon Ingram. He had a very poor playoff session for the Pelicans. He's due a contract extension. The Pelicans have never paid the [luxury] tax in the history of the franchise.... this is a player who might be on the market. And again, I don't think he'd be their No. 1 choice, behind Paul George. But this type of player is who Philly could potentially look at to add firepower and offense to this team."

PG would cost you a lot of money, but he if wanted to play here the Sixers could also maintain their draft-pick haul. So clearly, that would and should be Morey's top choice here. A dream scenario of dream scenarios.

Butler, who may or may not still be better than George, likely doesn't fit quite as seamlessly as PG due to the shooting concerns. Plus, Jimmy would cost you a lot of money and picks. I can see why he'd be your next consideration.

And then Brandon Ingram might be nabbed at a major salary and picks-discount relative to Jimmy, as your third option here, several tiers below the two All-NBA caliber fixtures.

Landing PG or Jimmy wouldn't guarantee a title. But you know the Celtics, Knicks and Bucks would hate nothing more than to see it happen.

Slop season came too early for me.

This is all too soon. But one thing I know, if Jimmy Butler caught one of those Jalen Brunson brake-check pull-ups in the jaw like Nico Batum, Kyle Lowry and Kelly Oubre, Jr. all caught? It wouldn't have kept happening quite the same way.