The Sixer Sense
Fansided

5 free agents the Philadelphia 76ers missed out on this summer

By Stuart London

Nerlens Noel and DeMarcus Cousins | Dallas Mavericks and New Orleans Pelicans (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
Nerlens Noel and DeMarcus Cousins | Dallas Mavericks and New Orleans Pelicans (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images)
(Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images) /

The Philadelphia 76ers get credit for swinging for the fences but, in the end, they did not make a splash in free agency. If they had adopted a different strategy, here are five free agents who could have helped this year.

The Philadelphia 76ers this offseason were like Captain Ahab in Moby Dick, going after the greatest whales in the sea. However, within 24 hours of the NBA’s official free agency period starting, the two biggest fish, LeBron James and Paul George were off the market.

Kawhi Leonard, the other major star available this offseason, was not a free agent. He was still under contract to San Antonio, who ended up trading him to Toronto. Reportedly, the Spurs wanted either Ben Simmons or Joel Embiid included in any trade, which was never going to happen.

After failing to land the big one, interim general manager Brett Brown and the rest of the basketball administration decided to focus on other ways to improve the team.

All the new editions to the Sixers roster since the end of last season came via the draft (Zhaire Smith, Landry Shamet, Shake Milton), trades (Wilson Chandler, Mike Muscala) or its summer league team (Norval Pelle).

The Sixers thought they had a free agent signing in forward Nemanja Bjelica but he ended up backing out of an agreement. Jamal Crawford is doing everything but sitting on Brown’s front lawn waving a ‘Sign me’ placard to get a contract but, so far, they have not done anything with him.

The 76ers had their reasons for not going hog wild with free agents. Free agents usually want multi-year contracts, which the Sixers do not want to do. They want cap flexibility for 2019, when they can go whale-hunting again, as well as look to extend some contracts of current core players.

It was for that reason the Sixers let Marco Belinelli and Ersan Ilyasova go, as they signed multi-year deals with other teams. Two of its other free agents, J.J. Redick and Amir Johnson, agreed to one-year contracts that paid them less than the previous year.

While not Moby Dick’s, there were plenty of other fish in the free agent sea. Maybe they were not superstars, but here are five players who were free agents that could have helped the 76ers this season — without screwing up its future cap space or hurting the development of younger players.