And if that player is 2016-'17 Kawhi Leonard, and we get him for the next five years? Eminently justifiable. Of all the items in the aforementioned Sixers bag of tradeable goodies, one thing not included is a proven MVP-caliber star, as Leonard is at full-strength. A team with him, Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons as a core should be able to compete with anyone healthy, and is worth nearly whatever the price tag ends up being.

But there's the hitch, or at least half of it: Leonard played just nine games last year. After a quad injury kept him out for much of the season, squabbles over his recovery and timetable for return led to him ultimately being ruled out for the season's remainder, and may have permanently soured his relationship with the San Antonio Spurs. It's possible Kawhi's late-season absence was more about lost trust and protection of personal interests than any chronic ailments, but the Sixers won't be able to know for sure until he takes the floor next season.

Compounding the concerns there is that next season might be all they'd be able to get with Kawhi. The two-way star appears to be attempting to leverage having just one year left on his currently contract into the Spurs having no choice but to trade him to his current team of choice, the Los Angeles Lakers: Trade for Leonard, and you'll only get him for a year before he heads to L.A. anyway, his people seem to be putting out in the world.

That could very well be empty bluster, and a year playing with two young, complementary, spotlight-splitting stars for a coach players love (and who he has a pre-existing relationship with already) might change his mind anyway. But to trade up to four or five high-level assets for a player who says he's gonna leave first chance he gets, simply in the hopes that he's bluffing -- and whose health might already be compromised anyway -- gotta say, it just doesn't seem like the kind of risk that smart teams take.

Now, as Godner and other NBA sages would undoubtedly point out, there's risk in letting an opportunity to land a player like Leonard slip away. Dudes like him don't come on the open market terribly often, and to pass on dealing for him now might ultimately be losing the only chance to add a player of his fit and caliber to an Embiid/Simmons core that we get in the next three-to-five years. And the counter-example here would be Oklahoma City's trade for Paul George last summer with just a year remaining on his deal, in the hopes that a season in OKC would ultimately persuade him to sign longterm: a gambit still without resolution thusfar, but with George clearly wanting to explore his options.

A couple things to remember there, however. First, players like Kawhi don't become available often, true, but at least one should next summer as well: Kawhi, again. Assuming he doesn't sign an extension with the Spurs (a possibility looking more remote by the day), he'll be an unrestricted free agent a year from now, and the Sixers can in theory attempt to pitch him then at no cost. Fellow UFA Klay Thompson could also become a target that offseason, or whatever other disgruntled star wants to force his way from his current team -- an increasingly common occurrence in this star-driven league.

And the Thunder/George situation isn't necessarily comparable, since the Pacers dealt him for just two assets, both of which the Thunder viewed as relatively fungible: most notably Victor Oladipo, who'd appeared overpaid and largely incompatible in a backcourt alongside franchise star Russell Westbrook. (Both he and center Domantas Sabonis proved far more valuable than expected in Indiana, but for fit reasons, OKC would probably still rather have George.) Most importantly, though: The Thunder basically had to take a swing at George. Without another star, their team appeared all but stuck, fated to another 40-something-win season of Westbrook & Friends ending in a first-round exit, without any other obvious paths to notable improvement in front of them. (Of course, with George in tow their season still basically went the exact same way, but at least there seems to be a higher ceiling on the team there now.)

In any event, that's not where the Sixers are currently: They don't have to do anything. They can try to land a big fish in free agency or trade. They can bide their time for a better-fitting, more-available star to come on the open market in years to come. Or they can focus on developing the formidable core they already have, and use their cap space to fill in the margins around them. None of those paths is guaranteed to be the right one, but none of them are particularly undesirable, either.

This is probably a lot of focus to place on the possibility of a Kawhi Leonard trade when it would probably only be the Sixers' third-most preferred outcome this summer. But it does seem to be the most likely one at the moment: LeBron and George seem largely motivated by factors beyond basketball fit and potential, while the latter is really the best thing the Sixers have to offer them. (Kawhi does too, but the choice isn't entirely his to make yet.) And if we try our damnedest to land Kawhi and the Spurs either hold onto him, grant him his Lakers wish or (lord forbid) deal him to Boston instead? What then? Do we double down on the next-best trade target or free agent, just so we don't have to face the humiliation of going to bat for the three best players currently available and coming away completely empty-handed? Does this end with us overextending ourselves to sign DeMarcus Cousins, or trading a Kawhi-like package to Toronto for DeMar DeRozan?

Again, there's nothing wrong with the Sixers going star hunting, as Brett Brown promised to on draft night. If they believe they can get LeBron James or Paul George to sign on the line that is dotted, it absolutely makes sense for them to go after them as hard as possible this summer. And if they can get Kawhi Leonard for a price in keeping with both his elite talent and the fact that he's an injury risk with just a single year remaining on his contract, they should certainly pull the trigger on that too. Hell, they could zero in on a restricted free agent they think fits an on-court need -- do-everything Magic forward Aaron Gordon, perhaps, or bruising Lakers big Julius Randle -- and tender them an offer sheet that gets their current team thinking long and hard about whether or not to match. Those are all great options.

My only point is that they're not the only options -- not even the only good options. Going into next year with a core of Embiid, Simmons, Saric, Covington and Fultz, supported by McConnell, Smith, a shooter (Redick again?) and our current bench phalanx of unproven late first-rounders -- that's a good option. Maybe not good enough for the Sixers to contend for a championship next season, maybe not even good enough for them to keep pace with Boston, but one that keeps the door wide open for us to do so in a year or two's time, or whenever the team is ready.

And speaking of the Celtics: Remember that the C's themselves balked on any number of rumored trades for star-type players (including George himself) before signing Gordon Hayward in free agency last summer, then finding a deal they liked for Kyrie Irving shortly after that didn't cost them any of their young high-upside players. Now, they have a trio of established All-Stars in Hayward, Irving and Al Horford, as well as a trio of blue-chippers coming up behind them in Jaylen Brown, Terry Rozier and Jayson Tatum, and they're set to basically contend forever. That's not a team outpaced by taking shortcuts, and the Sixers would be wise to extend their view to as long and wide as possible -- as our venerated coach/GM did with the Mikal Bridges trade on draft night -- to keep from getting totally lapped by them.

This offseason could be a pivotal one for the Sixers, but summer is never the season to rush anything. If Brett Brown & Co. survey the situation and decide the best move is to not even bother getting off the hammock, Sixers fans should be prepared to accept that as a reasonable outcome. Can't say Brett wouldn't have earned himself the lazy summer, certainly.