National Basketball Association

The 76ers Must Offer Otto Porter Maximum Money

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 7:29 p.m. ET

Fansided, Brian Jacobs/FanSided via The Sixer Sense

The Philadelphia 76ers have enough cap space to offer multiple players maximum contracts for the 2017-18 season. Otto Porter must be one of them.

In the midst of a breakout season, Otto Porter is playing his way to a hefty contract this coming Summer. In his fourth year with the Washington Wizards, the Georgetown product is averaging 14.3 points on 53.5 percent shooting from the field and 46.2 percent from the 3-point line. He’s also grabbing 6.5 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game in 33.6 minutes.

The Philadelphia 76ers should absolutely, without hesitation, before even taking one single breath, offer Otto Porter a maximum contract this offseason and see what happens.

Sure, there are scenarios in the 2017 NBA Draft that may make signing Porter to look a bit less optimal, such as drafting the beautiful prince himself, Jonathan Isaac of Florida State, but just do it, dude. The trajectory of Otto Porter’s career is pointing straight up and with Brett Brown‘s coaching (conditioning) philosophy, the 76ers need as much athletic 3-and-D guys as they can fit on the roster.

Porter, who was drafted by Washington third overall in the 2013 draft, stands six feet and eight inches. His ability to defend multiple positions and shoot the three at an exceptional rate provides many lineup options for coach Brown and the Sixers.

Philadelphia currently has three players under contract for next season who have the ability to guard small forwards and power forwards: Ben Simmons, Dario Saric and Robert Covington. Brown could roll out a starting lineup that’s extremely tall and defensively stout with Simmons at the point, Covington at the two, Porter at small forward and Saric at the four (with Joel Embiid at center).

On the flip side, the offensive and defensive fluidity of a lineup consisting of Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot as the off-ball one, Covington at two, Porter at three, Simmons as the ball-handling four, and Embiid at the five would be euphoric for 76ers fans; and this isn’t including the potential upcoming draft picks or the remaining cap space that the team would still have.

With regards to cap space, the Wizards currently have $99,510,391 on the books for the 2017-18 season, with a reported $102-million salary cap, which means that the Wizards are only $2,489,609 away (with Porter’s contract ending after this season), along with a first-round draft pick to pay.

Teams such as the Sixers, who are currently $55,502,231 away from the $102-million cap next season, are going to offer Otto Porter a huge contract and the Washington Wizards may have their hands tied because of that.

To help explain the Sixers’ cap flexibility, the Sixers would still have enough space to offer KCP all the money in the world too.