By now you know the Sixers have been linked to three players by ESPN’s Brian Windhorst: L.A. Clippers’ star wing Paul George (who Windy expects the Sixers to offer a max contract to), Heat super villain Jimmy Butler and Pelicans’ “star” Brandon Ingram.
This piece is part of a pro-con series I’m hurdling with my esteemed colleague, Harrison Grimm. Grimm lays out below, why a Joel Embiid-Tyrese Maxey-Butler trio would be a sight to see, but it’s better left as a daydream.
Here’s the pro-Jimmy side.
Point one: Paul George would be better?
Grimm described for us, persuasively, in his Butler con piece, that George is the superior option. To use the formal Latin debate term, fiat the PG plan.
Yeah, I think Butler is better overall than PG. But I’m not certain he’ll age better. And I agree that PG is a better theoretical fit, given his ability to willingly knock down triples and not need the ball quite as much offensively.
PG is a free agent, and getting him to choose Philly over L.A., N.Y., Miami or whoever would be a massive coup for the Sixers since it would also allow them to retain the up-to-five-firsts-on-NBA-Draft-Day next month picks haul.
So if the question is PG AND whoever else you can get using five firsts vs. Butler using said draft picks? I merrily concede to Grimm’s alternative hypothetical.
But Windhorst’s speculation that the Sixers are prepping to drop a max on PG’s door come June suggests Morey has already calculated as much. So even asking about Butler here almost necessarily means George is unavailable.
In that case, Jimmy becomes a fallback plan with immense upside.
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