Tag: after

2024 NBA free agency: After aggressive start, it feels like Morey is being patient in filling out Sixers roster nba,free,agency,after,aggressive,start,it,feels,like,morey,is,being,patient,in,filling,out,sixers,roster,liberty,ballers,front-page,76ers-free-agency-rumors-news

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Unless you’ve been living under a rock the last few days, you know the Sixers have been quite busy.

They worked quickly at the start of free agency to secure agreements from big man Andre Drummond and veteran bucket-getter Eric Gordon. They took care of some in-house business by re-signing Kelly Oubre, Jr., who gave the team strong minutes last season, and giving budding superstar Tyrese Maxey a well-deserved max extension. And, of course, they landed the biggest fish on the market agreeing to terms with Paul George on a max deal.

Since we got word that George would be joining Maxey, Joel Embiid and the Sixers, things have gotten quiet.

Almost too quiet.

The Sixers will reportedly lose the services of key role players Nicolas Batum and De’Anthony Melton. They’re also reportedly working on a sign-and-trade that will send Buddy Hield to the Warriors. Beyond that, there haven’t been many rumors about what the Sixers could do next.

That almost feels purposeful for Daryl Morey. After coming out of the gates aggressive, it seems like the long-time executive is waiting out the market, looking for his opportunity to pounce when the time is right.

As of now, the Sixers have eight players who are either signed or have reportedly agreed to terms. Embiid, Maxey, George, Drummond and Gordon will be here. Paul Reed’s deal is not guaranteed and it feels like his time in Philly could be nearing an end, whether it’s a trade or being waived. Ricky Council IV is also on a non-guaranteed deal, but there have been no indications the Sixers will look to move on from the young wing.

The team also has first-round pick Jared McCain and second-round pick Adem Bona, both of whom appear to be penciled in for standard NBA contracts. Factoring them in — and figuring Reed will not be here — it seems like the Sixers have nine players and six spots to fill. As of now, assuming Reed is waived and all the reported deals are accurate, the team will have roughly $8.9 million in cap space to use.

Who they could use that space on is complicated. There have been rumors about a possible trade for Nets forward Dorian Finney-Smith, but that appears unlikely to happen (at least right now). They’ve been connected to two Miami Heat forwards: Caleb Martin and former Sixer Haywood Highsmith. After that, you’re looking at veteran minimum deals to fill out the roster (a Dario Saric reunion, anyone?). There is also a strong likelihood Morey uses a CBA quirk to his advantage to give KJ Martin a balloon deal for the purposes of trading him during the season, as our Bryan Toporek shrewdly pointed out Tuesday morning.

If the Sixers went that route — waive Reed, sign Highsmith/Caleb Martin to a $6-8 million deal for 2024-25, then fill out the roster with minimum players and went ahead with that plan with KJ Martin — that would largely be seen as a great outcome.

But, Reed hasn’t been waived yet. Martin has not signed a balloon deal. There are also scant details about the Hield-to-Warriors sign-and-trade as of this posting.

Insert Brian Windhorst meme

Much has been made of the new CBA and the second apron becoming the new team-building boogeyman. Toporek, again, has been all over that angle for a while now for LB. The consensus seems to be the new rules are mostly hurting the NBA “middle class.” It’s almost like teams valuing threes and dunks — they want stars and cheap role players.

Why is this relevant? Well, perhaps Morey, with a bunch of roster spots to fill, sees the market drying up for these types of players and senses an opportunity to wait things out. Oubre didn’t sign until September last year and took a minimum deal because the market dried up. That seemed to work out quite well for the Sixers. This year, it feels like more players could fall into this category.

The other thought is that there are still major trades that could take place at any time. There’s been plenty of smoke around previously-reported Sixers target Brandon Ingram of the New Orleans Pelicans and Utah Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen. The Sixers are extremely unlikely to trade for either one this summer, but maybe they get in on the fallout of those deals.

Think about this: Jrue Holiday wasn’t traded to the Celtics until Oct. 1 of last year after the Damian Lillard-to-the-Bucks blockbuster. That’s not to say Morey should wait that long or that the player whom he could potentially acquire would be of that caliber. It’s simply to say sometimes a patient approach is the way to go.

Morey came out swinging to get George. Now, he appears to be biding his time to build out the ideal roster around his stars.

2024 NBA free agency: How the Sixers should exploit KJ Martin’s cheap cap hold after landing Paul George nba,free,agency,how,the,sixers,should,exploit,kj,martin,s,cheap,cap,hold,after,landing,paul,george,liberty,ballers,front-page,76ers-analysis,76ers-free-agency-rumors-news

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The Sixers made their big free-agent splash overnight Monday, agreeing with Paul George on a four-year, $211.6 million maximum contract. They’ve also agreed to re-sign Kelly Oubre Jr. (two years, $16.3 million), Andre Drummond (two years, “$10-plus million”) and Eric Gordon (one year, $3.3 million veteran minimum), which means they’ve already burned through most of their spending power this offseason.

From here, the Sixers must get creative to round out their roster. KJ Martin might be their best lottery ticket in that regard.

Martin is an unrestricted free agent, but he has a tiny $2.1 million cap hold, and the Sixers have his full Bird rights. They’d slightly cut into their cap space if they kept him on their books instead of an incomplete roster charge ($1.15 million), but having Bird rights on him allows them to re-sign him to anything up to his max salary.

The Sixers could take advantage of that cheap cap hold to both their own benefit and Martin’s. They could keep it on their books, spend the rest of their cap space and then overpay him on a two-year contract with a non-guaranteed second season. They could later look to flip him as salary filler in a midseason trade.

The Indiana Pacers gave Bruce Brown a two-year, $45 million contract last offseason, only to ship him to the Toronto Raptors six months later in the package for Pascal Siakam. The Sixers were reportedly open to emulating that strategy with Klay Thompson and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope this offseason if they struck out on George, according to Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports.

Martin could enable them to do a miniature version of it.

If the Sixers had a specific midseason target in mind, they could do an exact dollar-for-dollar match on Martin’s new contract. That would enable both the Sixers and the other team to trade those contracts in a straight one-for-one deal and not trigger a hard cap. If they were instead just looking to add a tradable contract to their books, they could use the dollar amount of the taxpayer mid-level exception ($5.168 million), room MLE ($7.983 million) or non-taxpayer MLE ($12.822 million) as options.

The Sixers could try to sign-and-trade Martin if they’re looking to fill that void more quickly, although as cap specialist Yossi Gozlan noted, Base Year Compensation rules would complicate that. Only 50 percent of Martin’s new contract would count as outgoing salary, which would make it more difficult for the Sixers or whichever team trades for him to avoid triggering a hard cap at the first apron. They’d be better off signing Martin to a balloon deal and preserving his contract for a midseason trade.

The only downside to this strategy is if the Sixers plan to hard-cap themselves at either apron with another move. They won’t be adding unnecessary salary to their books in that case. Otherwise, there’s no reason not to do this. They’re going to be over the luxury-tax threshold when they fill out their roster either way, so they might as well go deeper into it to increase their midseason flexibility.

Without Martin factored in, the Sixers can still create roughly $9.2 million in remaining cap space even if they keep Ricky Council IV ($1.9 million) but waive Paul Reed’s $7.7 million non-guaranteed contract. If they keep Martin’s cap hold as well, they could still have around $8.3 million in cap space. Based on the prices for Derrick Jones Jr. (three years, $30 million), Naji Marshall (three years, $27 million) Goga Bitadze (three years, $25 million) and Gary Harris (two years, $14 million), that should be able to net them at least one more solid player.

Once the Sixers used the rest of their cap space, they’d use a minimum exception to sign Gordon, officially sign Tyrese Maxey to his five-year, $203.9 million extension (without a player option!) and presumably use the $8.0 million room mid-level exception to sign Oubre. That means George and Drummond are the only two who are going into the Sixers’ cap space.

The Sixers could also take advantage of expanded salary-matching rules and look to flip Reed’s contract for a more expensive salary—they can take back up to $7.5 million more than they send out as long as they stay below the first apron. Staying below the first apron might be a challenge once they finalize Maxey’s new max deal, though. (Keep that in mind regarding any Dorian Finney-Smith trades you cook up over the coming days.)

They’d be better off spending the remainder of their cap space and then signing Martin to a 1+1 balloon deal with the intention of potentially moving him at the trade deadline. Signing him to such a deal would give the Sixers a way to upgrade midseason that they otherwise wouldn’t have. Again, the only risk here is if they hard-cap themselves some other way.

If not, the Sixers owners should be willing to foot a larger tax bill to improve their new Big Three’s chances of winning a championship. There are no more half-measures after signing George. The Sixers are all-in on winning now.

With some creativity, Martin—and his next contract—could help them do just that.

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.

2024 NBA free agency: After landing Paul George, Sixers’ surge to second overall in 2025 title odds nba,free,agency,after,landing,paul,george,sixers,surge,to,second,overall,in,title,odds,liberty,ballers,front-page,nba-free-agency,draftkings,76ers-analysis,76ers-free-agency-rumors-news

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In the wee hours of the night here on the East Coast, the Philadelphia 76ers were making it rain. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski dropped the bombshell scoop that Paul George is signing a four-year $212M deal, with a player option for the 2027-2028 season, with the Philadelphia 76ers. Not long after that we learned that All-Star Tyrese Maxey was receiving a max extension and the team was also retaining last season’s stellar minimum level acquisition wing Kelly Oubre, Jr. on a new team-friendly deal. Big Penguin Andre Drummond is back on board, and Morey lands another one of his favorite former Rockets in Eric Gordon too.

Having utilized cap space for the nine-time All-Star George, Philadelphia still has the No. 16 overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, sniper Jared McCain, the No. 41 overall pick, Adem Bona, an absolute freak athlete which he proved at the NBA pre-draft combine, plus the 76ers still possess four more future first-round picks to work with, and swaps.

We owe so much of it to our beloved Tyrese:

Tobias Harris is finally gone, landing big money to play for the Detroit Pistons (addition by subtraction?)

And they’ll look to round out the rest of the roster with a bit of remaining cap space before exceeding the cap by fleshing out the rest of the roster with veteran’s minimum deals for ring-chasing stars who can expect a fair amount of playing time — on such a now top-heavy roster.

Per Woj:

“George and his agent, Aaron Mintz of CAA, met in Los Angeles with a 76ers contingent that included owner Josh Harris, president of basketball operations Daryl Morey, general manager Elton Brand and Sixers legend Julius Erving, sources said. The Sixers even brought a front office executive, Peter Dinwiddie, who is a familiar face and friend of George’s from their years together with the Indiana Pacers, sources said.

The meeting came on the heels of months of unsuccessful negotiations between George and the LA Clippers on a deal to stay in his Southern California home.”

Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and the gangs’ odds on Draft Kings were around +1000 back when we thought there was a chance they might sign George.

Then their odds dropped precipitously to +1400 when Shams Charania reported the Sixers’ interest in the six-time All-NBA teamer had “significantly waned.”

It also didn’t help the Sixers’ cause when the New York Knicks traded for Mikal Bridges, and were soon able to retain OG Anunoby.

But by the time many of us woke up Monday morning, odds makers’ opinions of the current NBA hierarchy had shifted dramatically. Daryl Morey’s group has now peaked at +800, pushing the Knicks’ down from +800 to +950, following their loss of Isaiah Hartenstein.

The Boston Celtics have re-signed Derrick White, and even though Kristaps Porzingis is set to miss significant time as he rehabs from surgery, the reigning champs are still given a massive edge, +295.

The Celtics’ implied odds to win the 2024-2025 title are now around 25 percent. Philadelphia’s are near 11 percent. As many of you might remember, Morey said that if you have about a five percent chance it makes sense to cash in your future picks to go for it. Well, if that’s still the case, possessing an implied 11 percent should certainly entice him to keep looking to add firepower.

We’ll see how this plays out because it’s gotta be relatively unprecedented for a team that basically only has a handful of players (e.g. Embiid, Maxey, George, Drummond, Gordon, Oubre, Jr. McCain, Bona) in tow to be favored so heavily. So we’ll pay close attention to what happens with the final few roster spots. One name to watch could be veteran guard Reggie Bullock (pronounced Bull-LOCK which likely helps him lock up opposing guards).

The former Knick and Maverick is meeting with the Sixers and head coach Nick Nurse should be able to sell some helpful connective vets by offering a key role on a now true title contender.

Report: Sixers to sign Max Fiedler to Exhibit 10 deal after NBA Draft report,sixers,to,sign,max,fiedler,to,exhibit,deal,after,nba,draft,liberty,ballers,front-page,76ers-free-agency-rumors-news

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As we’ve learned in recent years, the conclusion of the second round of the NBA draft often begins a flurry of activity among undrafted free agents. Many player agents now prefer to tell teams not to draft players, preferring to have their clients enter the open market and steer them to a place with a preferred situation or path to playing time. Following the conclusion of Thursday’s second round (during which the Sixers selected big man Adem Bona with the 41st overall pick), Daryl Morey and the Philadelphia front office reached two-way contract agreements with Justin Edwards and David Jones.

With Philadelphia’s third and final two-way slot occupied by Terquavion Smith, the organization used another method of incentivizing undrafted free agents to join the fold in bringing in Rice’s Max Fiedler.

As your obligatory reminder on Exhibit 10 deals, they are non-guaranteed but carry the option for teams to convert them to two-way contracts, with players receiving a bonus if they are waived and report to the team’s G League affiliate. Teams can utilize up to six active Exhibit 10 contracts at once.

Fiedler averaged 9.3 points, 9.3 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 0.8 blocks, and 0.8 steals last year as a fifth-year senior. As Jon Chepkevich notes in his tweet reporting the signing, Fiedler is extremely adept as a distributor from the nail, interesting in that Joel Embiid often occupies a similar role within the Sixers’ offense. However, shooting range to the three-point line is not a part of Fiedler’s game, nor is a strong degree of rim protection. He is a solid rebounder, though, which has definitely been an area of weakness for the Sixers.

With Paul Reed’s status with the Sixers still undetermined, and the team using a second-round pick on Bona, Fiedler has a narrow path to working his way up with the big club. We’ll see what he can do in Summer League play, and if he can usurp one of the two-way slots (either outplaying one of the other UDFA signings or if Terq earns himself a full NBA contract). Likelier, Fiedler may end up a fixture with the Delaware Blue Coats this season.