My sense is Philly would like to upgrade now and also maintain flexibility in offseason, though if they got someone they could just consider the third star now they’d do it.Right– but, who? Siakam and Anunoby are already off the market. Markkanen probably isn't being traded. Donovan Mitchell would be interesting, but adding a ball-dominant guard seems like it could move them back into Sixers-with-James-Harden territory. And acquiring Zach Levine might objectively make them a worse team. It's not clear that Dejounte Murray is a good two-way player at this point— I'd rather have Caruso.
I haven't watched a ton of Sixers, but my sense is that the clearest opportunities for improvement are: (1) bigger backcourt defender; (2) a heat-check option off the bench who can provide playmaking and scoring when Maxey sits (someone like Malik Monk); or (3) upgrading Tobias Harris into more of a All-Star-level version of Tobias Harris (Siakam, Aaron Gordon). It feels like acquiring a ball-dominant star carries a real risk of regressing them back to last year's team, esp given the particular stars that are out there (to our knowledge) and their lack of interest in playing defense.
edit: maybe in some weird world, there's a three-way trade that gets the Sixers Austin Reaves and the Lakers Donovan Mitchell (not that those players have equal value of course, but you can see it from a "fit" perspective). But Cavs are playing too well at the moment for that to happen.
I agree the path there isn’t super clear. Which suggests they may be more likely to grab “someone” now and stay flexible (eg take on someone in $10 mil range or expirings - Caruso a great fit there)
I don’t think Kyle Kuzma is good enough—but he’s kind of an interesting fit (I worry he’s moved towards good stats/bad team guy though). Mikal Bridges is interesting—though pick side of that would be messy and I'm not sure they have enough. But he is the guy to ponder, seems like.