Philadelphia 76ers: Malcolm Brogdon needs to be a free agent priority

As the Philadelphia 76ers turn their eyes to free agency, one player they absolutely need to target is Milwaukee Bucks restricted free agent Malcolm Brogdon.

The Milwaukee Bucks are one of the deepest teams in the NBA – just watch them in the Eastern Conference Finals – but there’s a problem; they can’t afford to pay everyone.

With one of the tightest salary cap situations in the league and a bevy of ascending players looking for a pay bump, the Bucks just can’t afford to keep everyone around and pay Giannis Antetokounmpo a super-duper homegrown max contract.

Players – multiple players – are going to move on to greener pastures when July rolls around, and if the Philadelphia 76ers are smart, they should make sure that player is Malcolm Brogdon.

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Yes, Malcolm Brogdon, the 6-foot-5, 229-pound 3-and-D combo guard that somehow stole the 2017 Rookie of the Year award away from both Joel Embiid and Dario Saric; instantly making him public enemy number one in the City of Brotherly Love.

But after moving on to a half-dozen new public enemies, I think the two sides could come together in the correct situation.

You see, while Brogdon isn’t exactly an elite player, or elite at anything particular, the former second-round pick out of Virginia is practically tailor-made to play alongside the 76ers’ current corp, and could develop into the third star the Sixers initially envisioned when they drafted a certain Washington combo guard first overall in the 2018 NBA Draft.

And best of all, fans don’t even have to imagine what Brogdon would look like in the 76ers’ unconventional lineups; we have a whole bunch of tape.

Much like the 76ers, the Bucks have their own 6-foot-10 point forward in the form of ‘The Greek Freak’ Giannis Antetokounmpo, a player who looked almost identical to Ben Simmons during his sophomore season. Because of Giannis’ ability to handle the ball like a guard and defend pretty much any player in the league, the Bucks run some pretty creative sets, and thus need players who can play and guard multiple positions.

In the Mike Budenholzer-era, Brogdon has been asked to play both guard positions almost interchangeably, playing shooting guard when they go small, playing point guard when they go big, and playing shooting guard when they slot in Giannis at point guard.

Despite this positional variability, Brogdon had a career year in 2018-19, averaging his highest points per game (15.6), rebounds per game (4.5), free throw shooting percentage (92.8), field goal shooting percentage (54.4) and 3 point shooting percentage (42.6).

Really, if Brogdon averaged another assist and half a steal more each game he would have had career-best numbers in every single statistical category, but hey, no one is going to complain about a player who shot 90-50-40 from the line, field, and from deep.

Factor in Brogdon’s maturity and it’s easy to see why the 26-year-old is going to be in high demand come July.

While the Bucks would certainly love to keep Brogdon around, they can’t just offer him a contract and hope he signs. No, Brogdon is a restricted free agent, and that means things can get interesting real quick.

For those unfamiliar with restricted free agency, here’s are the basics: any team in the league can submit an offers sheet to a restricted free agent and their team has two-days to either match it, or lose the player for nothing.

That means that if a team like the 76ers were to offer Brogdon a four-year contract for, say $80 million, the Bucks would all but have to reject the offers sheet, as they only have about $5 million in practical salary cap according to Spotrac.

Now making an offer on Brogdon does have its risk, as the Bucks have two days to essentially keep Philly’s money in limbo, but with $43 million in practical cap space before re-signing any of their free agents, the 76ers can afford to do so for the right player.

Brogdon is the right player.

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With a very versatile skillset, and the ability to play alongside anyone from Simmons, to J.J. Redick, to Jimmy Butler (depending on how things go), submitting a big money offer sheet to Malcolm Brogdon could not only make the Philadelphia 76ers a whole lot better but also make the Milwaukee Bucks worse. What could be better?