Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was out on a golf course when he got the news. And the reaction he and his buddies had? It’s already living on the internet rent-free in Sixers fans’ heads.
The veteran wing agreed to a buyout with the Memphis Grizzlies over the weekend, and once he clears waivers, he plans to sign a one-year, $3.9 million deal with the Philadelphia 76ers. That puts him right back in the same locker room as LeBron James, a guy he won a ring with in 2020 when both were with the Lakers.
A video posted by a friend on Instagram shows Caldwell-Pope and his boys on the golf course. Someone reads him the news, and the whole group starts dancing. KCP is all smiles. The caption basically says: turn me up. It’s the kind of genuine, unfiltered moment that reminds you this is still a game these guys love playing.
A reunion years in the making
Caldwell-Pope spent three seasons with LeBron in Los Angeles, from 2018 to 2021. He was never the loudest name on those Laker teams, but he was the kind of glue guy every contender needs. A reliable perimeter shooter. A defender who could guard multiple positions. In the 2020 bubble, he averaged 10.7 points in the playoffs and shot 38 percent from three. That’s the version of KCP the Sixers are hoping shows up in Philadelphia.
After leaving L.A., Caldwell-Pope landed in Denver and won another championship in 2023 as a key rotation piece for the Nuggets. He’s now chasing a third ring. And doing it with James again, this time in a Sixers uniform that suddenly looks a lot deeper than it did a week ago.
The Sixers signed James to a massive deal just before the KCP buyout news broke. So in the span of about 48 hours, Philly added a generational superstar and a proven veteran wing who already knows how to play off him. That’s a pretty good week.
What KCP brings to Philly
Last season with the Grizzlies, Caldwell-Pope played 51 games and averaged 8.4 points, 2.7 assists and 2.5 rebounds. Those numbers won’t jump off the page, but the Sixers didn’t bring him in to be a scorer. They brought him in to space the floor, guard the other team’s best perimeter player, and not make mistakes when the game slows down in the fourth quarter.
He’s 33 now. But his game has always aged well because it never relied on explosiveness. He reads angles. He knows where to be. And he clearly wants to be in Philly — the golf course video says more than any press conference ever could.
No word yet on when the deal becomes official. But the Sixers’ rotation just got a lot more interesting.
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