Philadelphia 76ers: Remember when Manu Ginobili was almost a Sixer?

After a decade without a legitimate sixth-man scorer, the Philadelphia 76ers came a signing away from adding the best to ever do it in 2016: Manu Ginobili.

While contextualizing Landry Shamet‘s place in Philadelphia 76ers‘ history, I was taken aback by just how few quality sixth-men the organization has had this century.

Outside of Shamet, the Sixers really haven’t had a bench scorer capable of taking over games coming off the bench since three-time Sixth-Man of the Year Award winner Lou Williams suited up for the club from 2005-12.

Sure, Nick ‘Swaggy P’ Young had a pretty good season for the club in 2012-13, Tony Wroten flashed some potential in 2013-14, and players like Hollis Thompson, Nik Stauskas, and Marco Belinelli each took turns filling a sixth-man role but none of them stuck around. Through the entirety of Brett Brown‘s coaching tenure, only two players, Jerryd Bayless and Isaiah Canaan had consecutive seasons averaging more than 10 points per game coming off the bench, and they only combined for 58 reserve games in red, white, and blue.

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You almost have to try to be that ineffective.

But in one of the great ‘What ifs…’ of recent NBA history, Coach Brown almost poached the best sixth-man in NBA history away from his former club – in a move that could have changed the ‘Process’ forever.

The year was 2016, and after 14 straight seasons with the San Antonio Spurs, Manu Ginobili‘s NBA career was fast coming to a close. After working his way through Europe from 1995-2002 as arguably the most decorated international basketball player in the history of the sport, Ginobili had fallen back into a reserve role at the ancient-by-NBA-standards age of 38.

Granted, it’s not like coming off the bench was all that foreign for the two-time All-Star, as Ginobili transitioned to a sixth-man role before the 2011-12 season, but still, for the first time since his rookie campaign, ‘Argentina’s Flying Man’ averaged less than 10 points per game over a full season.

With a number of intriguing bench options already in the fray, Coach Greg Popovich appeared hesitant to extend Ginobili to a big-money deal, especially with his role all but certainly shrinking even further.

But Ginobili would never… leave SA, right? After watching Tim Duncan retire at the end of the 2015-16 season after 19 years with the organization, and Tony Parker set to follow suit shortly thereafter, the Spurs could be the rare team with a homegrown Big 3 that all retired from the league as one team Hall of Famers – mind you, this is before Parker made the odd decision to play a single season for the Charlotte Hornets in 2018-19.

Brett Brown had other ideas.

With Joel Embiid, Dario Saric, and Ben Simmons locked into place after three straight seasons of intentionally bad basketball, Ginobili looked like the perfect overpay candidate to immediately vault the Sixers up the Eastern Conference’s power rankings all the while adding some championship-caliber veteran experience to the locker room.

For $20 million, why not, right?

Despite amassing a pretty impressive collection of players over the better part of three seasons, the 76ers really didn’t have a shooting guard of even average starter-caliber on their roster, with no long-term fix available on the open market. By snatching Ginobili away from the Spurs, Brown would have instantly upgraded his starting five with veteran scorer, all the while giving Simmons a perfect backcourt mate to learn from as he transitioned from a one-and-done college power forward to a legitimate NBA point guard.

And as for Ginobili? He could go out a starter with a huge payday to boot.

Over his 16 seasons in the NBA, Ginobili earned $116 million. Is that a huge sum of money? Sure, but when compared to players of the same era like LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Carmelo Anthony it’s relatively meager. Heck, Tobias Harris‘ current four-year max contract is worth $180 million and he’s far from a first-ballot Hall of Famer at this point. That one season with the 76ers would have put more money in Ginobili’s pocket than his final three seasons in San Antonio combined, all the while giving Manu a chance to earn even more on a second, or even third short-term deal.

Unfortunately, it just wasn’t meant to be.

Ginobili ultimately signed a one-year, $14 million deal to remain a Spur, and the 76ers filled his spot with three mid-level free agents in Sergio Rodriguez, Gerald Henderson, and the aforementioned Bayless.

Next. The Philadelphia 76ers should have never traded Landry Shamet. dark

But what if Manu Ginobili had spurned the Spurs and signed the with Philadelphia 76ers? Would J.J. Redick have been a necessary signing? Would the team have been in a position to trade up for Markelle Fultz? *Gasp* would Bryan Colangelo still be entrenched at GM? That single signing could have changed everything.