Daryl Morey is determined to find a third star. But which free agent best fits the Sixers?

As the NBA Finals got underway last week, the 76ers have once again been relegated to watching from afar. Sure, seeing the Knicks miss out after losing a Game 7 to Indiana (at home, no less) provided some measure of schadenfreude — but that can go go so far. At some point, Daryl Morey and the brain trust are going to need to give Sixers fans something to actually cheer for at this stage of the playoffs.

And so, all eyes now turn to how the Sixers might reload for another run next spring. The team has more salary-cap space to work with than most franchises; Joel Embiid is under contract for at least the next few seasons, and the assumption is that Tyrese Maxey will return on a max extension. That gives Philly a core combination that is close to championship-caliber. But it needs a bit more.

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We can see this when we compare Embiid and Maxey with the top star combos of past NBA champions.

When healthy, Embiid is theoretically good enough to lead a title team; his +7.7 Estimated Raptor rating last season (which represents the number of points per 100 possessions he added above an average player between his offense and defense) was well within the range we’d see from the best player on a champion. For Maxey’s part, his +2.7 Raptor was a career high, but it was more like what we typically see from the third-best player on a champion, not a No. 2 (the majority of which fall between +3.7 and +5.5):

That leaves the Sixers with a hole. But who could be that championship-worthy second banana? The free-agent market offers a few options on that level — but only a few.

LeBron James had a +5.1 Raptor in 2023-24 and can opt out of his contract with the Los Angeles Lakers this summer, which makes him a fascinating potential final piece of the 76ers’ puzzle. But he’ll also be 40 next season, coming off his best output in four years, so there’s no guarantee he’ll keep playing at a historically high level for an older star. (This is to say nothing of how his son Bronny’s NBA draft hopes play into where LeBron might sign.)

Paul George and his +4.4 Raptor would also comfortably fit into the range of championship No. 2′s, and he can decline his option with the Los Angeles Clippers this summer. George is younger — though he is 34 — and his two-way impact (he was +3.2 on offense and +1.2 on defense) would be valuable for a Sixers team that ranked just 14th in offensive rating and 11th on defense, with major problems cropping up when Embiid missed eight weeks with a torn meniscus in his right knee. The downside? George usually misses more games than he did last season, and the belief is that it will be tough to pry him out of L.A.

No other pending free agents are quite within the production range of the typical championship team’s second-best star. However, there are other players who could hit the market the following summer and might be available via trade.

Donovan Mitchell of the Cleveland Cavaliers, for instance, had +6.2 Raptor — making him a supercharged No. 2 — and he can opt out of his contract after next season. Others in similar situations who fit as a title-ready No. 2 include Kyrie Irving, Jimmy Butler, Jalen Brunson, Jayson Tatum, Derrick White, and Lauri Markkanen.

It’s hard to see some — if not most — of those names being available, but it’s at least worth seeing what the market is and what it might take to swing a deal. And if that fails, there is yet another path: Maxey could potentially grow into a championship No. 2.

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He will still be just 24 next season, an age at which players continue to show progress at both ends of the court. Starting from a rating of +2.7 last season, he would have to improve by roughly a whole point per 100 possessions to reach the level where most historical second bananas reside — not the easiest task, though far from impossible. Looking at all qualified players since the ABA merger who played at least 1,000 minutes at ages 23 and 24, 32% of them improved their Raptor scores by at least a point between those seasons.

If Maxey joins that club, it opens up all kinds of possibilities for the Sixers. Instead of focusing on the small group of free agents and/or trade targets who might qualify as a championship No. 2, Philly could instead turn its attention to the larger class of potential No. 3′s.

Based on 2023-24 stats, that group includes Isaiah Hartenstein, OG Anunoby, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, DeMar DeRozan, Sam Hauser, and Pascal Siakam among this summer’s free-agent crop, and Scottie Barnes, Alex Caruso, Rudy Gobert, Aaron Gordon, Brandon Ingram, Khris Middleton, T.J. McConnell, Evan Mobley, Trey Murphy III, Jamal Murray, Chris Paul, Alperen Sengun, Jalen Suggs, Matisse Thybulle, and Franz Wagner potentially among the pending free-agency ranks.

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Another important restricted free agent to bring back this summer is De’Anthony Melton, who has a history of high Raptor ratings when healthy and might serve as a co-third banana if he could ever chip in something offensively in the playoffs.

Going the latter path is certainly a bet on Maxey’s ceiling. To reach that next level, he needs to improve his scoring efficiency and his defense, where the Sixers have often been worse with Maxey on the court. He also needs more consistency: Maxey followed his brilliant, season-saving performance (46 points, including seven in the final 25 seconds of regulation to force overtime) in Game 5 of the Knicks series with a dud in Game 6.

But we’ve seen Maxey deliver with the pressure on enough times to know that he has the ability to keep raising his championship-leading profile next to Embiid. If the Sixers’ front office believes that too, its job is to focus on players who meet the qualification to be a title-winning No. 3, and build around that trio.