August 31, 2024
Benny Sieu/USA TODAY Sports
Can former Sixers head coach Doc Rivers guide the Milwaukee Bucks to a championship?
In the second edition of our Sixers Ties series — finding the connections and storylines, big and small, between the Sixers and each of the other 29 teams in the NBA — let's head to the Central Division, which figures to be competitive in 2024-25.
Sixers Ties: Atlantic Division
The Boston Celtics are the overwhelming favorites in the Eastern Conference, and many have deemed the Sixers and New York Knicks to be their real competition. Don’t count out the Bucks, though.
Sure, their 2023-24 campaign was disappointing — but injuries and a midseason coaching change were major roadblocks. This is still a team that, for all of its flaws, has Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard leading the charge. Khris Middleton and Brook Lopez remain high-caliber starters.
The Bucks very well may be the fourth-best team in the Eastern Conference, but it isn’t difficult to make the case for them being in at least the same tier as the Sixers and Knicks.
That midseason coaching change, of course, gave the Bucks their strongest connection to the Sixers: head coach Doc Rivers. After three years with the Sixers featuring tremendous regular season success and spectacular playoff embarrassment, Rivers was dismissed and pursued a resumption of his media career. He signed on to be one of ESPN’s lead color announcers and was set to call the NBA Finals.
But when the Bucks decided that rookie head coach Adrian Griffin Sr. was in over his head, Rivers got right back to work and quickly took over a team desperate for stability.
The top of Milwaukee’s roster is dynamic, but their depth is extremely shaky. Whether or not Rivers and his staff can get the best out of their supporting pieces very well may determine whether or not the Bucks can win at the highest levels.
One other connection here: the Sixers own the Bucks’ 2027 second-round pick, courtesy of the Patrick Beverley-for-Cam Payne swap that did both teams well.
After nearly six years, Tobias Harris is not a member of the Sixers. He signed a two-year, $52 million deal to return to Detroit this summer, ending a Sixers tenure filled with disappointment and underwhelming performances in big moments.
For a team that was by far the NBA’s worst last season, adding a veteran like Harris should at least help the Pistons be a bit more competitive in 2024-25 — though many have already started overstating how Harris can impact winning for a team on any timeline.
On top of that, Paul Reed is also now in Detroit. The Sixers were forced to waive him to free up the necessary cap space to sign Caleb Martin, and the Pistons wisely used their abundance of room to claim Reed, inheriting his unconventional contract that runs for two more seasons with salaries that are not guaranteed until mid-January of each year.
Reed’s final year in Philadelphia did not represent a storybook ending; moving on from him to sign Andre Drummond was a prudent choice by the Sixers. But he is still a viable backup center in the NBA who is young, has excellent athletic tools and is on a team-friendly contract. Reed is an asset, and the Pistons were wise to use their priority on the waiver wire to nab him.
The Sixers’ strongest connection to the Pacers is obvious: T.J. McConnell, who went from battling Scottie Wilbekin for the last roster spot on a team that went 10-72 to a multi-year fan favorite in Philadelphia before departing for Indiana.
McConnell receives a standing ovation every time he returns to Philadelphia, yet at this point, folks outside of Philadelphia will remember him as a Pacer. Not only has he now spent more time in Indiana than he did with the Sixers, but he has been considerably better.
McConnell was a nice player for the Sixers, but is one of the single best backup point guards in the entire NBA nowadays. His unconventional scoring, crafty passing and pestering defense make him a constant headache for the opposition.
The ultimate praise of McConnell: he has undoubtedly gotten the most out of his abilities. And on Friday morning, news broke that he was being rewarded for it.
Indiana Pacers guard T.J. McConnell has agreed on a four-year, $45 million extension, Mark Bartelstein and Andy Shiffman of @PrioritySports tell ESPN. Deal takes total worth of McConnell’s contract to $54M over five years. pic.twitter.com/knBuakvOzt
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) August 30, 2024
McConnell’s four-year, $45 million extension — which will kick in at the start of the 2025-26 season — will bring his career earnings within the ballpark of $90 million. It is a remarkable accomplishment for an undrafted, undersized player who made good on the only real chance he was ever going to receive.
The Pacers recently signed another former Sixer on a training camp deal — albeit someone with a bit less cache in Sixers lore: Dakota Mathias.
Mathias opened the 2020-21 season on a two-way deal with the Sixers, and will be remembered for knocking down a clutch three in a game he was forced into the rotation for because the Sixers had roughly half of their players injured or sidelined due to COVID-19.
One of the strangest moments in my years covering the Sixers was taking this video of the few available Sixers taking the floor for a game:
The 76ers, who have nine players out today, have taken the court in Philly. (via @SixersAdam) pic.twitter.com/YmzwFT3Jbq
— ESPN (@espn) January 9, 2021
The only former Sixer on Chicago’s roster is a player that many now forget actually began his NBA career in Philadelphia: Nikola Vučević, whose time as one of the league’s most skilled offensive centers appears to be waning.
Vučević, who was drafted No. 16 overall by the Sixers in 2011 and then traded in the infamous Andrew Bynum deal after his rookie season, enjoyed an impressive prime with the Orlando Magic highlighted by a diverse array of scoring methods. He was an underrated lynchpin of an era of Magic basketball. However, Chicago’s trade to acquire him — and the ensuing contract they gave to the veteran center — were disastrous. Now, the aging process has really started to kick in for Vučević.
Chicago’s front office has been the subject of ire for a long time, but their moves this summer — trading Alex Caruso for Josh Giddey in a one-for-one swap and losing DeMar DeRozan for next to nothing after declining to trade him for multiple years, in particular — have brought plenty of attention their way.
Second in line in Chicago’s front office is General Manager Marc Eversley, who was a high-ranking official within the Sixers’ front office from 2016 until 2020. He was hired by Bryan Colangelo, who he also worked for with the Toronto Raptors, and ended up outlasting Colangelo by two years after his former boss was engulfed in a bizarre scandal.
Georges Niang gave the Sixers two strong years as a critical bench piece, knocking down over 40 percent of his three-point attempts during both seasons he spent in Philadelphia. Letting him walk on a three-year, $25.5 million deal with the Cavaliers last offseason was a necessary decision to make, though, for the sake of preserving as much cap space as possible this summer.
Niang seemed like a perfect addition for a Cleveland team desperate to add shooting. But his three-point accuracy was just good, not great, and his noteworthy flaws in other facets of the game were exposed. Niang bouncing back and looking like the player he was with the Sixers would be a boon for new Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson.
While Niang is the only player on Cleveland's roster that has ever suited up for the Sixers, they actually have a player who was technically drafted by the Sixers, point guard Ty Jerome. When the Sixers traded up in the first round of the 2019 NBA Draft for Matisse Thybulle, the Sixers had to make two picks on behalf of the Boston Celtics. The Celtics made a separate deal with the Phoenix Suns involving one of those picks, and suddenly the Sixers had to call in a pick on Phoenix's behalf. That turned out to be Jerome, who was forced to don a Sixers hat in his photo with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver despite the entire world knowing he was not going to Philadelphia.
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