Cousins injury = huge payday for Philadelphia 76ers Joel Embiid?
By Bret Stuter
Free Agency isn’t free
The Philadelphia 76ers have become players in the NBA Free Agency market once more. But as expected, the track into signing “free agents” is anything but free. This season, the Philadelphia 76ers committed $43 Million to retain the services of three NBA players: J.J. Redick, Amir Johnson, and Jerryd Bayless. Of the group, Redick, Johnson, and Trevor Booker contracts expire at the end of this season.
But the team is in the upper tier of the NBA now. And as such, the challenge is not simply attracting talent, identifying talent, but affording talent. The team clearly has some decisions to make about the 2018-2019 roster. But that is nothing compared to the challenge of the 2019-2020 season. In that year, the team will need to retain or replace the likes of Bayless, Richaun Holmes, Justin Anderson, and T.J. McConnell. So it simply does not get easier.
Price of success going up
Let’s face the economic reality here. As the Philadelphia 7ers improve, each player who has gotten the team better wants to be paid. And deservedly so. So new free agents must be measured for both their cost to the team and their expected production. Wouldn’t it be great to have a roster filled with all-stars?
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Just ask the Oklahoma City Thunder, a team once boasting Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant, and James Harden how that turned out? So too, the Philadelphia 76ers have assembled a trio which could rival that of the Thunder in Embiid, Ben Simmons, and Markelle Fultz. And at the moment, it seems that Embiid is arriving and Simmons is close behind. And if Embiid earns either MVP or All-NBA designation, he deservedly gets a huge payday for his efforts. But the trick to success with this team may not be signing elite free agents like LeBron James. The true path to an NBA Championship may be paying the elite talent already on the team.