The 76ers are a legitimately good team that have two of the most talented young players in the NBA with Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons. They should be competing for championships and looking to come out of the Eastern Conference for years to come.
Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons really want LeBron James in Philadelphia
They’ve already started recruiting the future Hall of Famer.
Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
But both of their young foundational pieces want to speed the process up a bit. The 76ers’ core seriously wants LeBron James to come to their team. After last night’s loss, Embiid posted his recruiting pitch on Instagram.
#Summer2018Goals says it all. But it’s one thing for the Sixers to want James, and it’s another for them to actually sign him.
When did the Sixers start recruiting James?
It picked up steam this season, believe it or not. Simmons is the key to all of this. James is the point forward’s mentor and he’s also a signee to KLUTCH Sports agency under Rich Paul, who is one of James’ closest friends and his agent.
Earlier this season, Simmons posted an Instagram picture with him, James, John Wall, and Tristan Thompson — two other KLUTCH clients — and captioned it “June 30th Midnight” which is when James will officially become a free agent.
There were also some billboards posted outside of Cleveland recruiting the Cavaliers legend to Philadelphia.
Recruiting him is fine, but could this actually become a thing?
James to the 76ers is somewhere in the cards
All signs point to James being a free agent this summer and the Sixers are one of the few teams that has the cap space outright to sign him. Both J.J. Redick and Amir Johnson are coming off the books this summer after signing one-year deals totaling $34 million in 2017.
Though we won’t know exactly how much cap space the Sixers will have to play with until the cap level is officially set, that’s enough space for James to fit in. It’s totally possible that he could fit in the picture along with Simmons and Embiid.
But James might not exactly fit in with their roster
There’s no question the Sixers’ roster is filled with talent. Both Embiid and Simmons look like they could be generational players and have immediately shifted the Sixers from a starving franchise to a playoff team in their first season together. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that James will be on board with their team.
He very obviously does not fit in with the team in terms of age. The 76ers have an average roster age of 24 years old, despite playing some veteran players and having players with a bit of NBA experience. Still, James is 33 years old and has shied away from playing with young players in the past.
He didn’t include Andrew Wiggins in his letter announcing his return to Cleveland and encouraged the Cavaliers to trade for Kevin Love. He didn’t play with younger players in Miami despite knowing their roster was aging and getting worse. He’s unconcerned about the future of the Cavaliers’ Brooklyn pick — James wants to win now.
Though Embiid and Simmons are somewhat known commodities to this point, Simmons is still 21 years old. Embiid is only 23 years old and has a history of health issues. James may not be interested in watching Simmons grow or depending on Embiid to stay healthy.
Still, the Sixers make sense from a talent standpoint
James, Simmons, and Embiid make one hell of a big three, no matter what way you cut it. Sure, Simmons can’t shoot right now. But James made things work in Miami with Dwyane Wade for four years without him developing a reliable jump shot. Simmons is still only improving and can play power forward as well as point guard.
It might be time to take the ball out of James’ hands, anyway. He’ll be 34 next season and will need to lighten his workload a bit. Playing the four could be the best option for the next stage in his career.
They’re three great basketball players who can still make things work. Plus, their talent pool is still growing. Markelle Fultz has yet to play truly meaningful minutes this season plus they’ve got another pick coming from the Lakers or Kings and that could easily be flipped into another talented player.
The 76ers would be a great destination for James — at this point, it’s just a matter of if he wants to go there. One thing is for sure: The Embiid and Simmons will do everything in their power to convince him he does.
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