LeBron James and Jaylen Brown aren’t the only former NBA champions whom the Sixers added to their roster this offseason. Shortly after landing LeBron, they also signed Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to a one-year, veteran-minimum contract.
KCP has largely gotten lost in the shuffle of the Sixers’ offseason overhaul, particularly coming off back-to-back disappointing seasons. But he might wind up being their secret weapon both on and off the court.
Caldwell-Pope won a championship alongside LeBron with the
2019-20 Los Angeles Lakers, and he added a second ring a few years later with Nikola Jokić and the Denver Nuggets. He was a role player on both of those teams, which should give him a unique perspective to add in the Sixers’ locker room this year. Not only has KCP played with two of the greatest players of this generation, but he’s gotten to see the secret sauce behind two recent title teams.
At the Sixers’ media day, Caldwell-Pope spoke about how important it is for the team to build off-court camaraderie, and how that helped fuel both the 19-20 Lakers and 22-23 Nuggets. LeBron’s back-and-forth trips to New York City might not be helping much in that regard right now, but once the season starts and the Sixers start heading out on extended road trips, they’ll have plenty of chances to bond throughout the 82-game grind.
KCP isn’t just the Sixers’ honorary Kyle Lowry this season, though. There’s a chance that he’ll be able to make an impact on the court, too.
From 2019-20 through 2023-24, Caldwell-Pope averaged 10.7 points per game while shooting 45.0 percent overall and 40.3 percent from deep. Over the past two seasons, he averaged only 8.6 points per game while shooting 42.7 percent overall and 33.3 percent from distance.
At media day, KCP declared that his shot is still “great” and that he did a ton of shooting this past summer to get ready for this season. He also explained why he didn’t experience the success in Orlando and Memphis over the last two years that he did in L.A. and Denver.
“For me, I’m a rhythm player,” he said. “I have to be in a rhythm, being able to touch the ball, being able to feel the ball. Last few teams, that wasn’t happening how I wanted it to happen. But I still got there and played my ass off defensively, gave it my all on both ends.
“But I think here, just playing with these types of guys—Bron, JB, Joel, Maxey—it’s gonna be a lot of open shots, a lot of opportunity to be able to get back to shooting 40 percent. That plays a big part in me shooting 40 percent. I’ve gotta be able to get the ball, be in a rhythm. I think this team is gonna create those opportunities for us.”
Caldwell-Pope underwent surgery in February to “address a misalignment” of his right pinkie finger. He said that was “probably the longest I had ever sat out” throughout his 13-plus-year NBA career, but he added that “my game is still there.”
Since KCP is on a one-year, veteran-minimum deal, this was basically a risk-free signing for the Sixers. Anfernee Simons figures to be their sixth man, while Caldwell-Pope and rookie guard Labaron Philon Jr. will battle for any leftover minutes behind Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe. If all of them play well, perhaps they’ll be able to convince head coach Nick Nurse to experiment with some three-guard lineups.
That isn’t the only way KCP could help the Sixers on the court, though. If he puts his recent struggles behind him, he could open the door to a larger midseason shakeup, too.
Simons signed a two-year, $12.3 million contract with the Sixers this summer, which includes a second-year player option. If he stays healthy and plays well, the Sixers might not be able to re-sign him next summer.
Since the Sixers are in a win-now window, they aren’t likely to preemptively dump Simons for draft capital at the trade deadline to avoid losing him for nothing in free agency. But if KCP plays well enough to give them confidence in a Maxey-Edgecombe-KCP-Philon backcourt rotation, the Sixers could use Simons’ $6.0 million salary as a way to solve one of their other roster problems. (Such as, say, backup center?)
Of course, last year’s trade deadline is a great example of how quickly such a trade can backfire. Shortly after the Sixers traded Jared McCain for the first-round pick that they’d later use on Philon along with three second-rounders, Maxey suffered a finger injury that sidelined him for two weeks in March. The Sixers were down to Edgecombe, Quentin Grimes, Cameron Payne and Lowry as their only healthy backcourt options.
This year’s Sixers do have Caleb Love and Rayan Rupert on two-way deals as well, and they shouldn’t have to be quite as reliant on their two-way players this season as they were last year. (In other words, they shouldn’t hit their 50-game limit as early.) Either way, their backcourt depth does look like a clear strength for them heading into the season.
If Caldwell-Pope does have a bounce-back year, that could have some quietly huge implications for the Sixers heading into the February trade deadline and the spring.
Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac and salary-cap information via RealGM.
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