Philadelphia 76ers: Good, better, best forwards on the free agent market

Better: Nicolas Batum

If the Philadelphia 76ers want to aim their sights a little higher than Danuel House or simply want to use their TMLE to double-down on the position after already locking him up, Nicolas Batum would be a wonderful option in that $6 million range.

A 6-foot-8 former first round pick who may soon play with Joel Embiid on the French National Team, Batum is a good 3-and-D forward who was justifiably released by the Charlotte Hornets due to his gaudy cap hit but found new life in Los Angeles as a combo forward coming off the bench for the Clippers.

Over his two seasons in LA, Batum averaged 8.2 points, a steal, and 4.3 rebounds per game while playing just over 26 minutes per game. Though his field goal percentage of 46.3 is a tad underwhelming, his shooting percentage of 40.2 from 3 largely makes up for it, especially when you consider he attempted 68.3 percent of his shots from beyond the arc.

Factor in his impressive efforts as a defender, where he earned a 1.7 Defensive Raptor rating according to FiveThirtyEight, the second-best mark on the LA Clippers and the 46th-best mark in the NBA overall among players who logged at least 1.174 minutes, and the prospects of pairing up Embiid and Batum makes a ton of sense if the latter is willing to take the TMLE.