The Philadelphia 76ers are looking to bring in some major star power this offseason, but it sounds like they are trying to keep their supporting cast largely unchanged.
Keith Pompey of the Philly Inquirer reported this weekend that the 76ers are “most likely” looking to re-sign three veterans from this season’s team. They are guard Kyle Lowry, swingman Kelly Oubre, and forward Nicolas Batum.
Pompey notes that the 76ers would like to add a max-salary outside free agent, meaning that they would be limited in what they could do to fill out the rest of the roster. Thus, those three, who reportedly may not command much on the open market, are the likeliest to get new deals from Philly.
Oubre is the youngest of the three at 28. Despite a strong first season in Philly where he averaged 15.4 points and 5.0 rebounds per game, he still tops out as an inefficient No. 3 or No. 4 scorer. Lowry (38) and Batum (35) are much older and thus may not attract a lot of outside interest. But they proved their value to Philly this year (especially in the postseason) as role-playing intangibles guys.
The 76ers have a slew of other free agents to worry about this summer, including Tobias Harris and Buddy Hield. But this report makes it sounds like those players are less likely to come back. Philly needs to be measured about where to spend their cap space, especially with some of the massive-name targets they have been linked to in recent weeks.
