Philadelphia 76ers Tried to Acquire Paul George at Trade Deadline
Basketball fans have grown used to seeing the Philadelphia 76ers at the bottom of the standings, so they surprised a lot of people when they managed to turned things around a couple of months ago. Unfortunately, promising center Joel Embiid went down with a knee injury and the Sixers are once again in free-fall mode.
Many people have accused the team of tanking over the years in order to get high draft picks, but it seems they are seriously trying to build a good team right now.
ESPN's Zach Lowe has reported that the Sixers were one of the teams to engage in trade talks with the Indiana Pacers for All-Star forward Paul George at the trade deadline. Citing multiple sources, Kyle Neubeck of Liberty Ballers said the Sixers offered the Pacers one of their young centers (either Jahlil Okafor or Nerlens Noel), forward Robert Covington, and at least two first-round draft picks.
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"According to multiple sources, the Sixers' preference was to keep their own future picks and move the draft rights of other teams — like those of the Lakers and Kings — in an effort to protect themselves against George leaving. However, the Sixers were not turned off by George's reported preference to play for the Lakers, according to one member of the organization, and believed they could sell George on staying with the Sixers long-term by enticing him to play with their promising core players,"
Since the Sixers believed that they could convince George to stay, Neubeck said the team was willing to include their picks after this year's draft in a package to acquire George.
That's actually an impressive package. But it wasn't enough to land George. Of course, some observers have noted that the price was too steep for a player who could leave after the 2017–2018 season. George wants to play for a contender. The Sixers have a lot of promising players. However, they are not going to contend for the title.
