Other Philadelphia 76ers assets and the investment cost
Looking at the current roster, I would place Covington as being probably the third or fourth best player. I could see him being placed at five.
For the sake of a nice number at five, let’s argue that in this evaluation, Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid, Dario Saric, Markelle Fultz, and J.J. Redick have more current value than Covington. These are easily debatable, certainly (I would place Covington as third in current value).
Simmons cost the team a first overall pick and then arguably a season of patience. This was their own draft pick.
Embiid cost the team a third overall pick and two seasons of patience.
Fultz cost the team a first overall pick and a season (and then some, still happening) of patience.
This pick was acquired in a convoluted way. They sent their own third overall pick to Boston (which turned into Jayson Taytum, who has more current value than Fultz but the long-term is debatable), a 2018 Los Angeles Lakers first-round pick, or a 2019 Sacramento Kings first-round pick, both the Lakers and Kings pick had protections. The Sixers kept the 2018 pick, and Boston gets the better of the Sixers or Kings pick in 2019.
I won’t go down the rabbit hole of how these first-round picks were acquired. The cost on them was relatively low due to some crafty trades from Sam Hinkie, but suffice it to say that they basically gave up a first-round pick for Markelle Fultz and gave up the opportunity cost of Jayson Taytum, which is undoubtedly far more of an investment than Covington’s starting contract with the team.
Here’s a page from Derek Bodner with more info on the status of the Sixers’ draft picks.
In the case of all of these, it’s almost indisputable that the $3 million buy-in on Covington is greater than what the cost on these lottery picks were.
J.J. Redick was brought in on a player-friendly one-year deal for $23 million, and the team re-upped him for under $13 million. For the right-away value he brings, it wasn’t bad considering the state of the team’s cap at the time of the first contract (they could afford him) but still far more of a cost than Cov, and they had to get him in the door before they could offer him the low $13 million year-long deal.
No matter how you splice it, all of these players had a higher initial buy-in cost.
The only other player who has offered some really tremendous value that arguably exceeds the investment is Dario Saric, who was selected with the 12th overall pick. Still, I find it hard to argue that he has even been a better player than Covington at this point, which makes it difficult to argue that the R.O.I has been greater than that of Covington.