PHILADELPHIA, PA - APRIL 17: Tyrese Maxey #0 of the Philadelphia 76ers talks to the media after the game against the Miami Heat during the 2024 NBA Play-In Tournament on April 17, 2024 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2024 NBAE (Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images)
76ers key player Tyrese Maxey has terminated his contract that worth $176 Million with…
The Philadelphia 76ers have been linked to Los Angeles Clippers star Paul George for some time now. Because they’ll have the cap flexibility, they can add him without any complication. Whether the interest is mutual on George’s end is currently unknown.
While George has not entered free agency, Bleacher Report’s Grant Hughes believes that the Sixers’ pursuit of him will succeed. In a May 15 story, Hughes explained why he believes George would pick the Sixers over the Clippers.
“George cannot be confident in Leonard staying healthy for a full regular season and playoffs, mainly because it’s never happened since they teamed up in 2019. Take a moment to digest the fact that in this hypothetical, George is choosing the health record of Joel Embiid, who’s never played more than 68 games in a season, over Leonard’s. If that doesn’t illustrate Kawhi’s chronic unavailability, nothing will.”
Not only that, but George believes that the Sixers have enough to entice George that they are a winning team.
“Ultimately, George has good reason to believe the Embiid-Tyrese Maxey combo has more upside than the Leonard-James Harden one—and that’s before considering Harden’s own free agency. The Sixers have unmatched flexibility, an in-prime MVP, and a rising max-salary star.”
George finished the third year of a four-year, $176 million contract. He once finished third in MVP voting in 2019.
After the Dallas Mavericks eliminated the Clippers, George gave his thoughts on what his future holds.
“I’m not even focused on that yet,” George told reporters when asked about his future. “I got a lot to kind of digest myself, so I haven’t even got to that yet. Look forward to kind of going back, just letting everything kind of decompress, talk to my family, be around family support and then address the next step. … Yeah, it’s just not where I’m there. I’m not there yet.”
George has plenty of time to consider his options. Free agency will not start for over a month. Since joining the Clippers in 2019, they made one Western Conference Finals appearance in 2021.
When asked if he’d like to run it back with Leonard and ex-Sixer James Harden, George answered somewhat in the affirmative.
“Yeah,” George said. “If it works that way, absolutely.”
The Clippers already have Leonard locked up despite his inability to stay on the floor. The pairing has been effective, with the only issue being that they’ve failed to stay healthy. George must decide if it’s worth it.
