Let’s continue our Sixers Ties series — evaluating all connections to the team across the NBA — by heading to the Western Conference’s Northwest Division that features a few noteworthy former Sixers players and some other folks who are in some way linked to the team:
Sixers Ties
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Portland Trail Blazers
The player on Portland’s roster who is still remembered as a Sixer is Matisse Thybulle, who the team traded up for during the 2019 NBA Draft and watched blossom into one of the best perimeter defenders in the NBA right off the bat. Thybulle’s inability to develop any sort of offensive utility after more than three years finally led the Sixers to move on, and they traded him to the Blazers in a three-team trade that netted them Jaden McDaniels — who also failed to become a reliable contributor. Thybulle became a restricted free agent the next summer, and signed a three-year offer sheet with a player option in the final season worth a hair over $33 million with the Dallas Mavericks. Portland opted to match the deal.
But the Blazers also have a far more successful former Sixer on their roster. Who would have thought that when the Sixers drafted an athletic, toolsy wing with limited offensive skill with the No. 39 overall pick in 2014, Jerami Grant would become a 20-point-per-game scorer who, at the end of his current contract will have made over $242 million in career earnings?
Grant’s offensive development has truly been astounding. When he was able to develop into a competent player on that end of the floor who could hang his hat on defense, it seemed like he had hit his 100th percentile outcome. And then a stunning leap as a scorer came, and now here we are: over the last four seasons, Grant has averaged 20.8 points per game on 57.4 true shooting.
Trading Grant in 2016 for Ersan Ilyasova and a future first-round pick is not exactly something the Sixers will regret, though, as that draft pick turned into a player you might have heard of.
Denver Nuggets
It was a difficult offseason for the Nuggets, who watched starting shooting guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope depart in free agency without the ability to replace him externally. First-round pick DaRon Holmes II tore his Achilles. And because they have already made so many large financial commitments, they had very little spending power. Outside of veteran’s minimum contracts, the Nuggets could sign a free agent to the taxpayer’s mid-level exception — worth a maximum of two years at just under $10.6 million.
With that money, the Nuggets signed a new backup center: old friend Ďario Sarić, who has a second-year player option. Sarić joined the Golden State Warriors last season, opening the year as their backup center but eventually falling out of the rotation in favor of promising rookie Trayce Jackson-Davis. Sarić is a similar archetype of center to Nikola Jokić in that he is a passing-oriented big man, so perhaps the Nuggets were looking to create some stylistic continuity across their units. But considering this was their only way to spend above the minimum, it is hard to imagine that signing a declining version of Sarić was their most prudent path.
A note: the Nuggets were in nearly the exact same position last summer, and used the tax MLE on a player who many were similarly skeptical about being worth the money. A year later, the team had to trade three second-round picks to shed the second year of their contract when the player option they put in the deal was executed. Weeks later, the player was bought out by the team that took on his money and became a free agent again. And that is how Reggie Jackson became a member of the Sixers.
Behind Jokić and Sarić in Denver’s center rotation is former Sixer DeAndre Jordan, who for the third consecutive season will play for the minimum with the Nuggets. Jordan has been lauded for his locker room presence during his career, and that praise has never been louder than during his time in Denver.
Oklahoma City Thunder
Coming off a remarkable rise to the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference in 2023-24, the Thunder made significant improvements this offseason as they look to become perennial championship contenders. Their first move was to trade weak link Josh Giddey for Alex Caruso, an all-world defender and much-improved three-point shooter. The one-for-one swap shocked many, and it will make the Thunder considerably better on both ends of the floor. Before breaking out as a legitimate NBA player with the Los Angeles Lakers, the undrafted Caruso played for the 2016 Summer League Sixers.
The Sixers selected Arkansas sharpshooter Isaiah Joe with the No. 49 pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, but ultimately decided they did not have enough time to observe his developmental process. They waived him after two seasons, but he quickly landed on his feet with the Thunder and almost immediately became the exact player the Sixers had hoped: an accurate three-point shooter on massive volume who can change the complexion of an offense with his presence alone. Joe was rewarded with a four-year, $48 million deal to remain in Oklahoma City this offseason, a worthy reward for a good player.
When the Sixers used some leftover cap space to absorb Wilson Chandler’s expiring contract from the Nuggets in 2018, they received two second-round picks for their trouble — one of them being a 2021 second-rounder. That pick ended up being rerouted a year and a half later, when the Sixers sent it to the Golden State Warriors as part of the package that netted them both Alec Burks and Glenn Robinson III.
By the way, when Golden State traded those two second-rounders to Oklahoma City, one became Wiggins, and the other became Miles “Deuce” McBride, who has emerged as an excellent young player for the New York Knicks. Those two second-rounders were traded for… Kelly Oubre Jr. It’s a small world!
The Sixers and Thunder will be keeping eyes on each other for the next couple of years. The Thunder own the Sixers’ 2025 first-round pick (as long as it does not somehow fall in the top eight), and there is a good chance the Sixers will end up with Oklahoma City’s first-rounder in 2026. The Sixers will receive the least favorable first-round pick out of Oklahoma City’s, that of the Los Angeles Clippers and that of the Houston Rockets in two years from now. It is a strong bet that the Thunder will be the best of those teams.
Minnesota Timberwolves
The Timberwolves do not currently have any players with connections to the Sixers on their roster, but Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch has a long history with Sixers head coach Nick Nurse.
Nurse and Finch have been coaching with and against each other for nearly three decades. They have had rivalries and been each other’s assistants over many years, and have both spoken extensively about their friendship.
Most recently, Finch was an assistant coach for Nurse with the Toronto Raptors before he got his first NBA head coaching job in Minnesota.
Utah Jazz
Signing a nine-time All-Star in Paul George is the most significant addition the Sixers made this offseason, but he is not the only starting-caliber they signed in free agency: the team waited out Caleb Martin and signed him a four-year deal worth just over $35 million that is considered well-below his true market value.
Adding Martin, though, would not have been possible if the Sixers could not create nearly $8 million in cap space at the drop of a hat. That is exactly what they did when they waived Paul Reed, who was claimed by the Detroit Pistons.
When teams sign restricted free agents to offer sheets, they get creative in how they structure the deals as they try to dissuade the player’s incumbent organization from matching the offer. So, last offseason, the Jazz pursued Reed and secured an agreement on an unconventional three-year deal with an atypical incentive-based structure: if whatever team Reed played for advanced beyond the first round of the playoffs, all three years of the contract would be guaranteed; if it did not, the second and third seasons of the deal would be non-guaranteed until mid-January of each season.
The Sixers were largely expected to at least win one playoff series and the Jazz were not — Utah’s goal was to craft a contract that was only a one-year commitment for them, but a three-year commitment for the Sixers should they choose to match the offer sheet.
In case you have not heard, the Sixers did end up losing in the first round of last season’s playoffs — suddenly, Reed’s future in Philadelphia was in doubt. And when Martin became available — with veteran Andre Drummond already secured on a deal to return to the Sixers — it was a no-brainer to waive Reed.
The Sixers rounded out their starting lineup this summer by signing a battle-tested, tough-minded, two-way wing in Martin. And it would not have happened if the Jazz had not gotten creative but come up unsuccessful in their quest to sign Reed last summer.
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