How Covington’s extension fits Philadelphia’s long-term plans

Robert Covington‘s extension locks up another member of the Philadelphia 76ers young core, while giving them future cap flexibility.

I already wrote about the basics of Covington’s deal, but now that is has been finalized, we know even more about it. This means that we can learn even more about Bryan Colangelo’s plan for the future, and the options that the Sixers have moving forward.

Covington’s deal is very team-friendly for the Philadelphia 76ers, and is very front-loaded. This means that later on when the Sixers’ theoretical championship window is wide open, they’ll have a great three-and-D wing on an even better contract.

The terms of the deal, via ESPN‘s Bobby Marks:

As I mentioned in my initial article reporting his extension, Covington has been shooting the lights out so far, and you could arguably claim that he’s been the best shooter in the league so far in terms of volume and efficiency. He probably won’t shoot 50 percent from deep forever, but he doesn’t need to do that to be an incredibly useful player.

J.J. Redick is a great shooter, but his defensive struggles can hurt the Philadelphia 76ers at times, and there are times when you wouldn’t want him out on the floor. Covington doesn’t have any noticeable holes in his game though; he’s an incredible shooter, our best perimeter defender by far, and even rebounds well.

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If you want a defensive lineup, a shooting lineup, a small-ball lineup, or a giant lineup, he can fit in all of them and make each better, making him possibly the most versatile player on the Sixers. His biggest weakness is probably his inability to make plays for others, but with Simmons and Embiid already on the roster, it’s probably best that we have low-usage guys around them anyway.

His game isn’t the only thing that’s a seamless fit for the Philadelphia 76ers, though: so is his contract. By making extra money this year, Covington’s deal will be cheaper over the next four years, and that could really help the Sixers.

Joel Embiid is signed for five more years. Markelle Fultz‘s deal runs three more years. Ben Simmons and Dario Saric are under contract for two more years. Adding in Robert Covington and his four extra years means that this core will have the ability to grow together and be really good in a few years.

However, not all the growth has to be organic. If J.J. Redick, Amir Johnson, Jahlil Okafor, and Nik Stauskas all leave in free agency, that will leave the Philadelphia 76ers with a lot of cap space. Enough for a max contract, in fact.

They will have roughly $30 million in space, which they could use to sign some really high-level free agents. My personal favorite target: Paul George. I don’t know if he’d sign with us, maybe he really does want to go to the Lakers, but I think we could make a convincing pitch.

Imagine a starting lineup of Simmons, Covington, George, Saric, and Embiid. The rest of their league can take their small-ball and shove it: this team would destroy. We’d have two incredible lockdown perimeter defenders, two great shooters (and two decent ones in Embiid and Saric), and five similarly-sized players that could switch every screen.

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I’m not saying “We could beat the Warrios by running the same defensive scheme as them except with players that are half a foot taller and way better at rebounding, especially since the 2016 Finals proved that rebounding and skilled bigs are their one exploitable weakness.” That would be a hot take. But if someone else said it… I mean I wouldn’t disagree.

A perfect offseason for me would start with shipping out Jerryd Bayless and Justin Anderson, to clear roughly $11 million in extra cap space. This would actually allow the Sixers to pursue some older players that are eligible to sign larger max contracts than the younger guys, so we could target someone like Lebron James, but I don’t see that happening.

Anyway, we use that $11 million to sign some draft-and-stash guys (Jonah Bolden??) and our 2018 draft picks. Then we use our other $30 million to sign Paul George.

We’ll be right at the cap now, but that doesn’t mean we can’t spend any money. The Houston Rockets were close to the cap this offseason when they signed P.J. Tucker to a four-year, $32 million deal with a mid-level exception. I could see J.J. Redick signing with us on a similar deal, especially considering how much we overpaid him this year.

Our rotation would be absolutely filthy:

1. Ben Simmons
2. Robert Covington
3. Paul George
4. Dario Saric
5. Joel Embiid
6. Markelle Fultz
7. J.J. Redick
8. Richaun Holmes
9. T.J. McConnell
10. Timothe Luwawu-Caborrot
11. Jonah Bolden
12. Furkan Korkmaz
13. Anzejs Pasecniks
14. Draft pick/minimum salary
15. Draft pick/minimum salary

I think a roster like this would have a great mix of youth and veterans, and honestly be ready to really contend for a title right away. We’d be a little thin, especially in the frontcourt, but maybe we’d find an old ring chaser (like David West in Golden State) willing to come for cheap and play ten minutes a night. Maybe Jonah Bolden or someone we draft ends up being really good and useful off the bat, like Kyle Kuzma or Malcolm Brogdon.

Those are all problems we can deal with a year from now though. Right nw, let’s celebrate that Covington will be here for a while, and that his deal will set us up for years to come.

Next: 2018 NBA Draft Big Board 2.0

(As a random sidenote, sometimes the best deals are the ones that you don’t make. Thank goodness Minnesota didn’t accept this offer. These picks became Timothe Luwawu-Caborrot and Furkan Korkmaz, by the way.)

Thank goodness Colangelo finally realized what he had in Covington…