The Philadelphia 76ers appear to be a possible landing spot for O.G. Anunoby in the not-too-distant future.
Even with months until the trade deadline and even longer until his free agency next summer, the Toronto Raptors should be concerned about losing Anunoby. Anunoby’s name has started to pop up as a target for the 76ers in the aftermath of the James Harden trade, according to Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix.
Anunoby’s contract situation complicates matters further, as the 27-year-old forward is essentially barred from signing an extension with Toronto. It’s a similar situation to what happened last season in Toronto with Fred VanVleet, who also refused to sign his maximum allowed extension and eventually left the Raptors for a max contract from the Houston Rockets.
According to HoopsHype, the 76ers could take a page from Houston’s playbook and use the same strategy that the Rockets used to sign VanVleet to lure Anunoby away from Toronto next summer. For example, Philadelphia could pay Anunoby nearly $40 million in his first year while keeping the rest of their core except Tobias Harris.
Toronto could go above that figure with a max contract offer that is higher than anything else this summer could offer Anunoby.
It just takes a willingness to go that far. As the Raptors discovered last summer, players who don’t appear to be traditional max contract players can occasionally get max contract money if a team is desperate enough to make a splash.
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