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Sixers general manager Bryan Colangelo gives a tour of the locker room during the opening of the Philadelphia 76ers' 125,000-square-foot Training Complex in Camden, Friday, Sept. 23, 2016. The facility, the largest in the NBA, includes two NBA regulation-size basketball courts, a 2,800-square-foot player locker room, and state-of-the-art performance, wellness, recovery, and hydrotherapy rooms. (Lori M. Nichols | For NJ.com)

(Lori M. Nichols)

CAMDEN -- The Sixers cut the ribbon on the team's state of the art training facility on the Camden waterfront last September, and this summer plan to place a welcome mat out front for impending NBA free agents.

"Open for business" was the message Sixers President of Basketball Operations Bryan Colangelo delivered during his season-ending press conference Friday morning.

Last summer, Colangelo and the Sixers were positioned to have cursory conversations and meetings with top free agents such as Demar DeRozan. This time around, Colangelo sounds like a man ready to throw his hat into the ring.

"We certainly will make it known that we are in the market," Colangelo said. "If there is the right free agent to spend money on, we will."

After a 31-game glimpse of Joel Embiid, Dario Saric making a run at the NBA Rookie of The Year award in Embiid's absence, head coach Brett Brown's emphasis on player development and that sparkling new practice facility, Colangelo believes that unlike any other year in recent memory, the Sixers are now a sought after destination for free agent players.

Moreover, the Sixers are positioned to strike with approximately a league-high $27.26 million in spending flexibility, according to Spotrac.

"Through all the backchannels that we hear all the time," Colangelo said. "There are a lot players who view us as a desirable free agency destination. That is a big positive for us. We talk about the opportunity to play with good, young talent ... Dario, Ben, Joel, others. They talk about this facility. They talk about having a world-class training complex that ownership, obviously has invested in in a big way. We're committed to making this a world-class program. You talk about the staff, there are great relational elements to our staff around the league.

"We're going to make it known that we're a player in free agency. We're going to be prudent, and wise to how we spend in free agency. We're going to have some decisions to make as we go forward, here. We'll go through different iterations of what it might look like if we are successful in landing Free Agent A or Free Agent B. Some of those might mean a particular timeline, but we have a young timeline. That's the most exciting aspect of everything we talk about."

Colangelo's relationships across the league and the influence of his father, Jerry, and his connections with USA Basketball could finally prove an asset for the Sixers in luring potential free agents to round out one of the youngest rosters in the NBA.

"The future is out there," Colangelo said. "Do we want to jump to the future quicker? Or do we want to have it happen organically and grow the right way? That will be something we will have to decide between now and July 1, when it comes to how we allocate our free agency spend. Part of that will determine whether or not we have one-or-two draft picks in the top-10 this year."

Brown has repeatedly maintained that this will be the team's most pivotal summer yet in terms of player development and improvement, and from the sounds of it, it could be a summer unlike any in recent years as far as the team's activity in free agency as it looks to take a big step forward next season.

Matt Lombardo may be reached at MLombardo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattLombardoPHL.