The Sixers Have An Easy Formula For This Off-Season

The Celtics are NBA champions unfortunately and the NBA offseason has officially begun. I want all of us to be on the same page now on what we want the Sixers to do this offseason. With the amount of cap space, the Sixers have and with the 16^th overall pick, there are decisions that need to be made.

The goal is to beat the Celtics because the Celtics are the best team. Here is what the Sixers should do this off-season, and I think we all can agree.

The order of free agents is Lebron 1^st, followed by Paul George, followed by trades into the cap space. That is the order.

Jimmy Butler is behind Lebron and George in the order for 2 reasons. #1 because they would have to make a trade for George and Pat Riley isn’t a great negotiator, but he is a jerk. Dame ended up with the Bucks because Riley’s a jerk.

#2 because he doesn’t fit with Maxey as well as Lebron and George. We have seen Lebron flourish with a smaller star guard who needs the ball. George doesn’t need the ball nearly as much as Butler does.

Brandon Ingram is also ahead of Butler because again, his GM isn’t a jerk who will make a trade impossible. He isn’t as good a player as Butler, but he is just 26 years of age.

Once the Sixers accomplish adding one of the big splashes, then they can begin to think about other pieces. The other role players won’t make any sense until they secure a star.

The talk of just adding a role player and a backup center is insane. It is officially over now that we have seen the Celtics cut through the playoffs like hot butter on a summer day.

This is an easy formula, and I am glad that we can all agree. The plan is to build a team to beat the Celtics. The Pacers, Knicks, etc. are just speedbumps along the way. This is the minimum standard that we are setting for the Sixers offseason.

Who are the greatest homegrown Sixers players ever? I am not talking about guys born in Philly. We already made that list. I am talking about guys who were drafted by the Sixers, or at the very least made their pro debut in a Sixers jersey.We already did the experiment with the Phillies, now let's put together the All-Time Roster of homegrown Sixers players.

It gets complicated for them because some of their best players didn't get their starts here. Wilt Chamberlain, Dr. J, and Moses Malone, all got their pro basketball starts in other cities. So before you comment under the article and yell at me for leaving guys out, they weren't even eligible.

You had to be drafted here, or at least made your Pro debut in a 76ers jersey. Julius Erving may have played his first NBA minutes here, but he played in the ABA before that, so he can't make the list.

People who started with the Syracuse Nationals count. It is a different name and city, but the same organization. On the other hand, the Philadelphia Warriors do not count. Wilt played his first pro minutes in the city of Philadelphia but for a different organization. So the guy many would call the greatest Sixers player ever was not eligible for the list.

So who made the list? Who is the best center they ever drafted? The best point guard? Small Forward? Who would fill out their bench? We put together a roster of the best homegrown players in Sixers history. Find out who made it below.

Who else was it going to be? Ben Simmons? Hell no. Jrue Holiday? Love him, but Mo accomplished more here. Mo was an elite defender, was part of the last Sixers team to win a championship, and is in the Basketball Hall of Fame. Also unrelated to what he did as a player, he will always be a legend for stepping in and helping this girl who was struggling with the National Anthem.

I mean, duh. There are other great SG options, one of which we will get to. But AI defined a generation of basketball in Philly. Check that, he kind of defined a generation of Basketball period. He may not have won any rings, but he was as influential as anyone in his era.

AI carried the Sixers on his back to their one NBA Finals appearance since the 1980s. That team around him was not a Finals worthy roster. There were nice pieces, but without AI they wouldn't be competitive.

AI has a special place in this city. I saw the ovation he got when he came to Fan Fest and saw the emotional reaction it sparked in him. His time here was not without controversy, but AI will always be a legend in Philly.

A member of the 1967 championship team. Cunningham was drafted by the Sixers in 1965 and became a scoring machine for them. He was the first player in franchise history to score 50 in a playoff game.

He took a two-season break to play for Carolina in the ABA but then returned to Philly for the final two years of his career. Cunningham is in the Hall of Fame, made 4 All-NBA teams, and averaged a double-double across his career. He needed to appear on this list somewhere.

Most wasted Sixers career has a lot of competition. Allen Iverson is up there. Embiid is in danger of being there. But Charles Barkley also has a very strong case.

Barkley is a Hall of Famer but never won anything here. Then they traded him for peanuts. But when he was here, he was must watch TV. Between shattering backboards, filling up the scoreboard, and being an elite rebounder, Barkley deserved better than he got here.

Thankfully he doesn't hold it against the city. Barkley still loves the city, and will still be in and around it during his downtime.

Thankfully Wilt did not start his career here, so we don't need to start this debate. Joel is the most talented Sixers player ever, let alone being the most talented center. He is currently first in NBA history in points per minute. Add on elite defense, you get one hell of a player.

Obviously, he needs to do more come playoff time. But if you can’t appreciate how amazing Joel Embiid is, you just don't appreciate great basketball. Embiid will be a first-ballot Hall of Famer one day and will undoubtedly go down as a top 5 Sixer, if not the greatest Sixer of all time.

When he was drafted, they were still the Syracuse Nationals. But that counts. You could argue he belongs in the starter spot over AI. Greer spent his whole career here, won a Championship, and made the All-NBA team 7 times.

Even though he played his last game here 50 years ago, he still leads the franchise is games, minutes, and points. But I went with AI still, call it recency bias, or my personal bias because AI was the guy who got me into Basketball. But I had to put AI in the starting lineup.

He had one of the best nicknames ever. Chocolate Thunder, given to him by Stevie Wonder. He got the nickname because of his knack for booming dunks. The NBA literally changed the way they make their rims and backboards because he kept shattering backboards.

Iggy gets a bad rap. He was expected to be the guy here and never was. But we saw him go on and be an important piece of winning teams. That is what he is. Had the Sixers put star power around him, and he was the 3rd or 4th guy, Philly would have loved him. But from the start here he had expectations thrust onto him that he was never going to live up to.