The Philadelphia 76ers got their man to begin the free agency frenzy as they brought in Paul George on a 4-year $212 million deal. The goal now is to make sure they fill out the roster to prepare for the upcoming season.
When teams make that Big 3, the roster always needs some time to really fill out to build around the stars. Philadelphia can boast George, Joel Embiid, and Tyrese Maxey, but it needs other role players who can contribute to get the job done in the East.
That’s why ESPN’s Brian Windhorst hopped on “First Take” and stated that he isn’t sure if George alone will get the Sixers deep into the playoffs:
Obviously, that’s a huge moment. It’s certainly the headline of the summer without question, but this is the fourth time in about seven years that Paul George has been a headliner of an offseason…This is now the fourth time you could say he was a leading headline in the offseason. The previous three have led to what?
I certainly recognize that the 76ers are a formidable team. I think they’re going to need a year. I’m not going to put a lot of pressure on them to win this year. I know that that’s the thing that you would say is ‘Well now, Embiid’s gotta win’ and I agree, especially for a team that hasn’t gotten to the conference finals. That certainly would be the barrier, but historically, we see teams when they hollow out their roster to create a Big 3, they always need more time to backfill that roster and I want to give the Sixers that time to backfill that roster, but I’m tired of sitting here the first week of July and declaring that a Paul George arrival changes the everything because I believe that with the Clippers. I thought that team was set up to dominate. Now, we had the pandemic and that obviously affected Paul significantly, but bottom line I’m just going to wait back a little bit before I’m willing to just assume that this fit will mean the changing of the guard somewhere.
.@WindhorstESPN is "tired" of the idea that adding Paul George "changes everything" for a team 😯
"This is now the fourth time you could say he was a leading headline in the offseason. The previous three have led to what?" pic.twitter.com/y4nRweCp2N
— First Take (@FirstTake) July 4, 2024
At this stage of George joining the Sixers, he will be the third option. The focus will be on Embiid and Maxey as Philadelphia moves forward, but to Windhorst’s point, his arrival doesn’t guarantee the Sixers will succeed. There is still much work to be done in order to make this work.
