logo
Have the Sixers reached the end of the road with Embiid, George?

Have the Sixers reached the end of the road with Embiid, George?

Yahoo16-07-2025
Yahoo Sports contributing NBA writer Tom Haberstroh and NBA writer Dan Devine discuss Philadelphia's strategy with its oft-injured superstars and if it's time for the team to part ways with both. Hear the full conversation on 'The Big Number' and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.
View more
Video Transcript
I'll just go ahead and say it.
I think they need to move on from the Paul George uh timeline and just go with the kids.
I think, I think it has come to that point, but the problem is, no matter how much they would like to move on from this and say we need to go full youth movement, it isn't really up to them.
It's up to other teams who are really like looking at these contracts with Paul George and Joel Embiid.
And determining whether those are plus value assets and what it would take for them to take on Joel Embiid's contract, which will pay him.
A ton of money going forward, and as long as Joel Embiid and Paul George are on this team, and with all those question marks around their knees and their health questions and their ability to gel together, we don't even know if they can play well together, in that chemistry.
They paid that big three $136 million last season.
They played 15 games together, which if you do the math, carry the two.
That's $9 million per game that those big three played together.
So over the next three seasons, we're looking at a situation in which this coming year, they got $145 million on the books dedicated to those three, 153 in 2026, 2027, and if Paul George picks up that player option, that fourth year of his player option, that will be $163 million that are allocated to those three players.
Yeah, like well over 90% of the salary cap for each of the next three years.
I mean, this was, this was the bet they made, right?
They are stuck, they are stuck in this in-between of we've made our firm commitment to this build.
And also, we are backfilling, because again, if you're paying more than 90% of your cap to three guys, you've got to find the other talent somewhere else, and you've got like the kids have to be all right.
Close
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

De'Aaron Fox reportedly agrees to 4-year, $229 million max contract extension with San Antonio Spurs
De'Aaron Fox reportedly agrees to 4-year, $229 million max contract extension with San Antonio Spurs

Yahoo

time3 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

De'Aaron Fox reportedly agrees to 4-year, $229 million max contract extension with San Antonio Spurs

De'Aaron Fox has agreed to a four-year, $229 million contract extension with the Spurs, according to ESPN's Shams Charania, as San Antonio continues to revamp its roster with sights set on building a bona fide contender around ascendant superstar big man Victor Wembanyama. Fox, 27, averaged 23.5 points, 6.3 assists, 4.8 rebounds and 1.5 steals in 36.1 minutes per game last season, shooting 46.3% from the field, 31% from 3-point range and 82.7% from the free-throw line across 62 total appearances for the Spurs and Kings. He had the second-highest individual scoring performance of the season, pouring in a career-high and Kings franchise record 60 points in a November win over the Timberwolves: Aug. 3 made it six months since Fox landed in San Antonio in a three-team trade that ended his tenure with the Kings, seven and a half seasons after Sacramento drafted him out of Kentucky with the fifth overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft. Fox agreeing to a multi-year deal seemed all but assured from the moment he arrived, given the clear preference for being in San Antonio that he publicly confirmed to ESPN's Michael C. Wright after the trade … Once his agent, Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul, informed Sacramento of Fox's desire to join the Spurs, reports surfaced of the guard telling the club he had a list of preferred teams. "There was no f***ing list," Fox said. "There was one team. I wanted to go to San Antonio. So, a lot of people are mad at me, saying I handcuffed the team by giving them a destination. Well, this is my career. If anybody else is in my position, you'd do the same thing. It's not my job to help build your team. I'm not about to just go where [the Kings] want me to go. I wanted to have a destination." Even after reaching that destination, though, hitting the six-month mark was key. Because while Fox was eligible to sign an extension with the Spurs as soon as the 2025 NBA Finals ended, he had to wait a bit longer to be able to ink the most lucrative deal available — one that signals the Spurs' belief that the former All-Star and All-NBA point guard can serve as a championship-caliber running buddy and table-setter for Wembanyama for years to come. Fox is one of the NBA's quickest, most explosive and most prolific scoring guards — a three-level scorer who can break opposing defenses down off the dribble, get into the teeth of the coverage, and punish opponents by either pulling up from midrange, finishing at the cup, or drawing contact to get to the foul line. He has averaged 24.3 points and 6.2 assists per game on 47.8% shooting over the past six seasons. The only other players to hit those numbers over that span? Nikola Jokić, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Luka Dončić and LeBron James. That's pretty decent company — and a pretty surprising peer group, considering the relative lack of success that Fox was met with for the bulk of his time in Sacramento, as Vivek Ranadivé's Kings bounced from coach to coach, executive to executive, vision to vision and, largely, loss to loss throughout Fox's first five professional seasons. And then the Kings hired Mike Brown, and suddenly, Sacramento got serious. An overhauled motion offense built around the dribble-handoff chemistry of Fox and playmaking center Domantas Sabonis surged to the top of the NBA in offensive efficiency, rocketing the club back to relevance. 'Light the Beam' became a joyous meme, a rallying cry, an article of faith. Both Fox and Sabonis earned All-Star and All-NBA berths. Fox's remarkable late-game shooting and playmaking earned him the NBA's inaugural Clutch Player of the Year award. For the first time in 16 years, the Kings made the playoffs, taking the Bay Area big-brother Warriors all the way to seven games in the first round of the 2023 postseason; it took Fox breaking a finger on his shooting hand in Game 4, and Stephen Curry exploding for 50 points in Game 7, to end the Kings' breathtaking run. That, it turns out, was as good as it would get. Despite continued stellar play from Fox, Sabonis and sixth man Malik Monk, the Kings took a slight step back in 2023-24, dropping from 48 wins and third place in the West to 46 wins and the ninth seed as the rest of the conference rose up around them. They'd exact a measure of revenge by eliminating Golden State in their first play-in tournament game, but would lose to the Pelicans in their second, preventing them from returning to the playoffs proper for the second straight season — and setting the stage for things to get uncomfortable if the next campaign got off to a rocky start. Fast forward to December 2024, and … well, things got rocky: Already under .500 30 games into the season, the Kings had a chance to end a four-game losing streak by knocking off the upstart Pistons the night after Christmas. But Fox fouled Detroit guard Jaden Ivey in the act of shooting a 3-pointer with 3.1 seconds to go, resulting in a four-point play and a fifth straight loss. Afterward, Brown was critical of, among other things, Fox's defense on that decisive final play. One day later, the Kings fired Brown — a sudden, sharp decision that led some to speculate, especially in the absence of any press conference by the front office to clarify the rationale for the move, that Fox had gone to Sacramento's brass to call for a change. Fox vehemently denied that, and as the Kings' decision-makers continued to leave the circumstances surrounding Brown's firing unclear, the All-Star point guard grew increasingly dissatisfied with the state of affairs in California's capital. "I was like, 'Yo, I've been here for going on my eighth year. If Mike gets fired, I'll be going on my fifth coach,'" Fox told ESPN. "And I told them, 'I'm not going to play for another coach. I'm going to play for another team.' … You fire the coach, and you don't do an interview? So, all the blame was on me. Did it weigh on me? No. I don't give a f—. But the fact y'all are supposed to be protecting your player and y'all let that happen. ... I felt at the time the organization didn't have my back." Frustrated by that lack of support, and reportedly fearful of 'the prospect of wasting his best years on a team that was mired in mediocrity,' Fox and Paul made it clear that he felt his future lay outside of Sacramento. Specifically, in San Antonio — just a couple hours west of Katy, Texas, where Fox played his high school ball; where his wife, Recee, grew up; and where a certain 7-foot-3 Frenchman seems poised to take over the sport. 'It's like playing with Steph,' Fox told ESPN. 'Everybody can't play with Steph because you always have to look for him. But at the end of the day, that motherf—er can win championships. And I think Vic can win championships.' The Spurs barely got to see Fox and Wembanyama together, with a pair of ailments — Wembanyama's deep vein thrombosis and Fox's fractured left pinky finger — limiting them to just 120 shared minutes across five games, with San Antonio getting outscored by five points with them sharing the floor. The new agreement represents a vote of confidence that, with a clean bill of health and a lot more reps, the pairing can produce significantly more positive results. It also allows San Antonio to give Dylan Harper — whom the Spurs drafted No. 2 overall in June's 2025 NBA draft after a surprise rise in the lottery — a longer developmental runway, affording him the opportunity to come along slowly behind a high-level pro playmaker rather than being pressed into immediate duty and expected to provide elite service to Wembanyama, Devin Vassell, reigning Rookie of the Year Stephon Castle, and the rest of a Spurs roster expected by many to make a leap this season. Just how significant a leap depends primarily on Wembanyama, who's been cleared to return in time for training camp and could well be ticketed for MVP consideration in his third season. Just how significant a leap Wembanyama makes, though, could depend a lot on Fox — the kind of offensive engine who could make his life a lot easier, and who could give San Antonio the sort of inside-out one-two punch that makes Western Conference opponents' lives much, much tougher.

De'Aaron Fox, Spurs agree to 4-year contract extension
De'Aaron Fox, Spurs agree to 4-year contract extension

New York Times

time5 minutes ago

  • New York Times

De'Aaron Fox, Spurs agree to 4-year contract extension

De'Aaron Fox and the San Antonio Spurs have agreed to a four-year maximum extension worth as much as $229 million, his agent, Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul, confirmed to The Athletic. The deal includes no options, a team source said, and the move lines up the former All-Star guard's contract for the rest of the decade alongside emerging superstar Victor Wembanyama. Advertisement The Spurs acquired Fox from the Sacramento Kings at the trade deadline in February, but both Fox and Wembanyama missed significant time and only played five games together. At the time, the Spurs believed they had found an ideal pick-and-roll partner for their 7-foot-3 center, as Fox is adept at getting downhill to draw attention away from a center who can pop to shoot it or roll to the basket. Fox averaged just 19.7 points in 17 games with San Antonio last season before having season-ending surgery on his left pinkie finger. The Spurs acquired Fox three months before they won the second pick in the draft lottery and selected point guard Dylan Harper out of Rutgers, creating a potential logjam in the backcourt. Now the team has Harper, Fox and rookie of the year Stephon Castle, three downhill attacking guards who don't shoot the ball well. The Harper selection made pivoting off Fox more plausible, as Fox turns 28 in December while Wembanyama, Castle and Harper are all under 21 years old. The Spurs' roster has some veteran leadership from wing Harrison Barnes and offseason acquisitions Luke Kornet and Kelly Olynyk, while the rest of the supporting cast is in its early to mid-20s. With Fox now under contract for the rest of his prime, the Spurs are in position to compete as early as this season while the young core develops, similar to how the Boston Celtics developed current stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown as the supporting cast alongside veterans Kyrie Irving, Kemba Walker and Al Horford. Though there have been widespread calls for the Spurs to make more aggressive win-now moves around Wembanyama as soon as possible, the team took a more conservative approach this summer after acquiring Fox in February. With Wembanyama returning from a blood clot that ended his season at the All-Star break, the team may proceed with caution on making any moves that could eliminate long-term flexibility. Extending Fox presents a middle ground, as he is young enough to remain valuable throughout his contract. San Antonio has Fox, Harper, Devin Vassell, Kornet and rookie Carter Bryant signed through the 2028-29 season, with Wembanayma eligible for a max extension before next season and Castle extension-eligible two years from now.

Jack Berglund Impresses At WJSS, Makes Case To Be Intriguing Flyers Prospect
Jack Berglund Impresses At WJSS, Makes Case To Be Intriguing Flyers Prospect

Yahoo

timean hour ago

  • Yahoo

Jack Berglund Impresses At WJSS, Makes Case To Be Intriguing Flyers Prospect

(Header/feature image courtesy of David Reginek-Imagn Images) In a prospect pool as fast-rising and wide-ranging as the Philadelphia Flyers', it's easy for a player to get lost in the shuffle. Names like Jett Luchanko, Porter Martone, and Jack Nesbitt have drawn many of the headlines, especially as the Flyers build up their previously thin center position. But every so often, a player emerges—maybe not loudly at first, but with a string of performances too convincing to ignore. Enter: Jack Berglund. The 6-foot-2 Swedish center wasn't necessarily penciled in as one of the marquee players at this year's World Junior Summer Showcase. But with seven points (four goals, three assists) in just five games for Team Sweden, Berglund didn't just show up—he stood out. He's attacked his shifts with purpose, showed off pro-level detail and vision, and made an undeniable case for himself as one of the most intriguing sleeper prospects in the Flyers' system. And now, he's making a case to get out from under the radar. A Summer Statement There's a reason scouts and front offices put so much stock in events like the World Junior Summer Showcase. It's not just about production—it's about projection. It's about which players rise to the occasion against their peers, who commands the ice in high-leverage situations, and who looks like they belong in a top-line role when the lights are bright. Berglund answered every one of those questions—and then some. From the first puck drop, he looked composed and engaged. He was a play-driver, not just a passenger. He found soft spots in the offensive zone, made smart reads in transition, and most importantly, finished his chances. His four goals weren't flukes; they were the result of timing, anticipation, and a deceptively strong release. His three assists showed his ability to operate under pressure and find lanes, even when opposing defenders tried to close him off. In a showcase built for stars, Berglund made sure to shine. Is Jack Berglund? Berglund was selected by the Flyers in the second round of the 2024 NHL Draft (51st overall), a pick that drew a quiet murmur of curiosity from fans but considerable excitement from those who'd watched him closely. A tall, fluid skater with a strong two-way motor, Berglund came up through the Djurgårdens IF system in Sweden and caught the Flyers' eye because of his solid promise at center. He may not be the flashiest player—he's not going to dangle through an entire defense or pull off a Michkov-style no-look dish—but his game has a quiet assertiveness. He thinks the game well. He knows where to be. And he plays with a pace and confidence that belies his age. What stands out most about Berglund is how complete his game already looks. He's responsible in his own zone, uses his frame to win puck battles, and supports the play in all three zones. Offensively, he's shown more pop than expected, especially with his shot. There's some real upside in his ability to create off the rush and in tight. In other words: He plays the kind of game that coaches trust. And that matters. Where He Fits in the Flyers' Prospect Picture In an organization that's spent the last few years carefully (and sometimes painfully) retooling its identity, Berglund represents a different kind of win—and he's exactly the kind of player who deepens a pipeline, who gives you options. Think about it: every team needs centers who can drive play at 5-on-5, who can kill penalties, match up against tough competition, and chip in secondary scoring. That's the foundation of any contender. And Berglund, with his frame, hockey sense, and growing offensive game, could very well grow into that kind of NHLer. In fact, he may have more offensive upside than people initially assumed. At the World Junior Summer Showcase, he didn't just log minutes—he made things happen. That ability to control play at even strength is a skill that scales well to the NHL, especially in a league increasingly dominated by players who don't just survive in the middle of the ice, but thrive there. the Ceiling? Every prospect brings uncertainty, but with Berglund, the questions are more about 'how high' than 'how far.' At his floor, you're probably looking at a bottom-six, utility-type forward who can kill penalties and play honest minutes against tough competition. At his ceiling, though? A reliable middle-six center with size, strong transition metrics, and 40+ point potential who eats up important minutes at even strength and on the PK. That's not just useful—that's valuable. That's the kind of player that good teams build around. And it's the kind of player whose rise you don't see coming until it's already happened. Final Thoughts: In a Pipeline of Flash, He's the Foundation Jack Berglund may not have been the blockbuster pick, but make no mistake—he's putting himself in the conversation. This summer's breakout at the World Junior Showcase wasn't a fluke. It was the culmination of steady growth, relentless work, and a skill set that may be better than anyone thought when he was drafted just over a year ago. In a Flyers organization that's finally leaning into player development and embracing a deeper rebuild, that matters. Because players like Berglund are the glue that hold prospect classes together. They're the pieces that round out top-nines and make your team deeper, smarter, harder to play against. Jack Berglund may not be a household name yet. But the way he's trending? He's getting there.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store