Sixers' Star Pursuit at the NBA Trade Deadline Shows They're Still Stuck in the Past

Wednesday was Pile On The Sixers For The Jared McCain Trade Day, but buried in one of those columns was an eye-catching morsel.

According to Kevin O'Connor of Yahoo Sports, the Sixers were "actively making calls" prior to the Feb. 5 NBA trade deadline, although "nothing seemed remotely close." Some sources told him that the Sixers were "star-hunting, with Kawhi Leonard being a name that was connected to Philly. But nothing happened."

The Los Angeles Clippers did embark upon a teardown at the trade deadline by trading James Harden to the Cleveland Cavaliers and Ivica Zubac to the Indiana Pacers, but they kept Leonard for now. It's fair to wonder whether they'll revisit those conversations in the offseason when Leonard will be on a $50.3 million expiring contract, though. The Sixers might have another opportunity to pursue him in a few months' time.

If they do, it'll prove they learned nothing from their disastrous signing of Paul George.

The flaws of the three-max approach

During the 2024 offseason, the Sixers signed George to a four-year, $211.6 million max contract that is aging about as well as spoiled milk. It was not difficult to see the downsides of that approach even months before they did so.

"Once the dopamine hit from that Woj bomb fades and the reality of roster construction around a three-max core sets in, it would become increasingly difficult for the Sixers to sustain a championship-caliber supporting cast around Embiid, Maxey and their third star," yours truly wrote in January 2024.

That warning is proving prescient, particularly given the Sixers' relentless insistence on staying under the luxury tax.

Over the past two years, they've made a handful of financially motivated moves that further depleted the supporting cast around George, Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey. Landing VJ Edgecombe with the No. 3 overall pick in the 2025 NBA draft was a franchise-changing godsend, but even that hasn't been enough to help the Sixers get back into legitimate championship contention with this core.

The NBA's latest collective bargaining agreement was effectively designed to increase leaguewide parity—or "parity of opportunity," as NBA commissioner Adam Silver would say—by making it difficult for teams to hoard three or four stars at a time. The introduction of the second apron and the punitive roster-building restrictions for teams that go above that line intended to slowly bleed out teams that build around three max players.

The Sixers are doing the NBA one better by ensuring they stay below the luxury-tax line no matter how many assets they have to sacrifice to get there.

Building around three max players is difficult enough. Building around three max players when you refuse to pay the tax is effectively incompatible with championship contention. You'd basically need an Oklahoma City Thunder-esque draft run over multiple years for that to be a viable strategy.

George would almost certainly be the primary outgoing salary in a Leonard trade. From there, the Sixers could offer the Clippers their 2028 unprotected first-round pick back along with rescinded first-round swap rights in 2029. McCain could have been a tempting sweetener, especially if he had returned to form in Philly instead of OKC.

Alas. They sold high on him.

Would a core of Leonard, Maxey, Edgecombe and Embiid convince the Sixers to use all financial tools at their disposal, including any mid-level exception they have? Would that core justify paying the luxury tax for the first time in five years?

That all depends on health. And that's what would make Leonard such a risky move.

What's better than one injury-prone star…?

Leonard has only one more year on his contract at $50.3 million before he becomes an unrestricted free agent in 2027. That represents roughly 30% of the salary cap instead of the roughly 35% that he could be earning on a full max contract. In other words, he's far less expensive than George moving forward.

With Leonard now on an expiring contract, the Sixers might not be willing to give up a huge haul for a potential one-year rental. Granted, Leonard's contract is one year shorter than George's. If the Sixers are pursuing cap flexibility around Maxey and Edgecombe ASAP, they could be looking at Leonard's expiring contract as a positive rather than a negative.

If the Sixers acquired Leonard for George and not much else, that's one thing. If they spend significant assets to do so—including the Clippers' fully unprotected 2028 first-round pick and 2029 first-round swap rights—it's worth questioning whether that's the best way to spend those.

Leonard has missed at least 14 games in every season dating back to 2017-18. He's been playing at an All-NBA level when healthy this year, but banking on him and Embiid to both be healthy heading into the playoffs seems like a risky bet.

Even if both made it to mid-April healthy, they've each had multiple postseason runs short-circuited due to injuries. The odds of both making it through a playoff run healthy given the length and intensity of the postseason are basically nil.

If the Sixers enjoy having Maxey lead the league in minutes per game and watching him start to wear out by February, flipping one absence-prone player in his mid-30s for another absence-prone player in his mid-30s is the way to go. Otherwise, they'd be better off keeping George and the Clippers picks, which could be premium assets to help build around Maxey and Edgecombe right as George's contract expires.

According to Jake Fischer of The Stein Line, there were rumblings leading up to the trade deadline that the Sixers weren't sure "if the current team was close enough to true contention in the East to warrant a significant midseason trade splurge." If that's the case, they need organizational alignment on both their short- and long-term vision.

Is there any move that they could make, whether it's acquiring Leonard, Giannis Antetokounmpo or another star, that would get them in the mix with rising superpowers like the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs? If not, should they be looking ahead to the Maxey-Edgecombe era in a few years' time and saving their resources for that?

Either way, they'd arguably be better off breaking up George's contract into a few role players on smaller deals rather than a third player on a max contract. If they're going to continue whittling away their supporting cast by routinely ducking the tax, they need more reliable depth. They should not be one injury away from having to give rotation minutes to a soon-to-be 40-year-old Kyle Lowry.

The Sixers have two stars in Maxey and Embiid and a rising star in Edgecombe who's on a rookie contract for three more years. Even if they're committed to a Big Three model, that trio can comprise it. Doubling down on the three-max approach by giving up additional assets for the injury-prone Leonard might improve their ceiling, albeit at the expense of their long-term future.