By Jack Fritz, Sports Talk Philly editor
According to Sean Deveney, the Sixers are going to make an offer to Washington Wizards forward, Otto Porter Jr. this offseason.
The Nets have long been rumored to be willing to pay up for Porter. The Wizards caught a break when the Mavericks traded for Nerlens Noel, another restricted free agent, because Dallas intends to make him an offer in the max range — the Mavs had intended to pursue Porter. League sources suggest the Magic and Sixers will also consider making offers for Porter.
The rest of the article can be found here:
Before we get into the Porter news, look at Nerlens! But I was told a player that only averaged eight and five would never command a max contract?
Now to Porter, who is coming off of a career year with the Wizards. In his age 23 season, Porter averaged 13.4 points, 6.4 rebounds per game and shot 43-percent from behind the three point line. Those numbers might not scream max money but I guess teams are trying to see what Porter would like as the secondary option instead of a less prominent role behind John Wall and Bradley Beal. If a team thinks that stroke is legit from the three point line, and if he keeps developing as a defender, a max could be in store for Porter.
Before we get too ahead of ourselves here, the Wizards have little reason to let him walk this offseason. Their only hope at competing is keeping him and having a trio of Wall, Beal and him keep evolving into a contender in the East. Of course, if someone decides to max out Porter, the contract could become to rich for their blood coming off of an offseason where they signed Ian Mahinmi to a cool four year, $64 million deal in what was baffling at the time and even more baffling now.
I pray to God the Sixers don't hand out contracts like that when they're trying to compete, but nevertheless, the Wizards have little incentive to let Porter walk.
Who could/would offer Porter a max deal? The Nets do make a ton of sense. Without a first round pick next year and a good amount of cap space, the Nets have zero incentive to tank and Porter would be a nice guy to have once they eventually do get their first round picks back. Just a year ago, the Nets offered Allen Crabbe, a far less player than Porter, 4 years and $75 million. They haven't shown that they will be shy in spending money and a max to Porter seems likely.
I don't see the Magic offering Porter a max but could see somewhere in the $80-90 million range.
Finally, there's the Sixers. I personally wouldn't offer Porter a max. If they could get him in the $90 million range I would be much more happy, but it seems like a lot to invest in a position that you sort of have filled right now. The Sixers are also going to re-sign Robert Covington to an extension and if you're asking me if I'd rather have Covington at $12 million or Porter at whatever contract he'll get– I'll take Covington. Porter is the kind of piece that you sign to put you over the hump, the Sixers don't need to make that signing yet until they figure out what they're doing in the draft and find out what they have in Simmons and Embiid. It's just a little too early in the process to invest in a guy like Porter, who is going to take up a large portion of your cap with Embiid and Simmons contracts coming up.
While adding a piece like Porter would certainly be more aesthetically pleasing for Sixers fans, he's just not worth it at this time from a team building standpoint.
