The Sixers are heading into a kind of important offseason, in case you haven’t heard.
Joel Embiid is the Sixers’ only player under guaranteed contract beyond the 2023-24 season. Tyrese Maxey will join him soon enough, but Paul Reed’s $7.7 million salary for next season is now non-guaranteed since the Sixers didn’t win a playoff series. Ricky Council IV, whom the Sixers signed to a four-year, $7.4 million deal at the end of the regular season, is fully non-guaranteed for next season, while the Sixers have a team option on Jeff Dowtin Jr.
So, where does that leave the Sixers heading into the offseason? We’re partnering with SalarySwish to use their data and help answer every question you have about the Sixers’ financial situation and what it might mean in free agency.
We’ll make updates here as the offseason rolls along, so bookmark this page to keep up on the latest changes moving forward.
Sixers Roster, Salaries, Draft Picks, Cap Space and More
Here’s a table with all of the Sixers’ salary information, courtesy of our friends at SalarySwish:
That’s a lot of information to sift through, so let’s dive into a few key notes.
FAQ
Let’s start with the one on everyone’s mind.
How much salary cap space can the Sixers have this offseason?
The Sixers can generate up to nearly $65 million in cap room this summer. To do so, they’d have to waive Reed and Council, decline their option on Dowtin, trade No. 16 overall pick Jared McCain without taking any salary back and renounce every free agent they have, including Buddy Hield, De’Anthony Melton, Nic Batum and Tobias Harris. (Sixers fans will surely be devastated about the last name there.)
Barring a surprise trade, it seems like the Sixers plan to keep McCain. There’s no reason to waive Council, either, as his salary ($1.9 million) isn’t much more expensive than an incomplete roster charge ($1.2 million). If the Sixers do keep both McCain and Council, they can still create up to $61.3 million in cap space this summer.
They could also operate as an over-the-cap team by keeping their free agents’ cap holds on their books until they re-sign in Philly or head elsewhere. That could give them access to the $12.9 million non-taxpayer mid-level exception and $4.7 million bi-annual exception, but using either one would subject them to a $178.7 million hard cap for the rest of the season.
The Sixers figure to split the difference by opening some cap space but retaining a few of their free agents along with Maxey. It’s unclear which players they’ll prioritize or how much they’ll be willing to spend on each of them, but they’ll have plenty of external options to pursue as well.
That isn’t just limited to free agency, either. In fact, cap space could be more valuable than usual this summer if some teams decide to shed quality players for financial reasons. We’ve already begun to see that with the likes of Davion Mitchell, Wendell Moore Jr. and AJ Griffin.
How much will the Sixers pay in luxury taxes this year?
As of now, nothing. The Sixers did everything in their power to keep it that way, too.
After signing Darius Bazley, Kai Jones and DJ Wilson to 10-day contracts worth roughly $116,000 each, Dowtin to a rest-of-season contract for $127,000 and Council for an extra $864,000 this year, the Sixers were projected to finish roughly $755,000 below the $165.3 million tax line at the end of the regular season.
The problem from the Sixers’ perspective was the $1.1 million in unlikely-to-be-earned incentives in Hield’s contract. If he achieved all of those—one of them was making it to the NBA Finals this year, for what it’s worth—the Sixers could have finished a little too close to the tax line for comfort. That’s why the Sixers staggered their signings to ensure that they were at no risk of going back into tax territory.
One silver lining of the Sixers’ first-round exit is that they will officially stay below the tax this year, which means they’ll reset the clock on the repeater tax. They now can’t be subject to it until 2027-28 at the earliest, which should give the new-look core that they assemble this offseason a 3-4 year window.
What draft picks can the Sixers trade?
The Sixers can currently trade first-round picks in the following drafts:
- 2026 (their own, protected 5-30, or the OKC/LAC/HOU pick)
- 2028 (their own, protected 9-30, or an unprotected LAC pick)
- 2029 OR 2030 (not both)
- 2031 (if they don’t trade 2030)
The Sixers owe a top-six-protected pick to the San Antonio Spurs in 2025 and a top-eight-protected pick to the Brooklyn Nets in 2027. The Stepien Rule, which prohibits teams from going back-to-back drafts without a first-round pick, limits what other picks they can trade.
They also have the right to swap first-round picks with the Los Angeles Clippers in 2029 (top-three protected). Considering that all three of the Clippers’ stars are in their mid-30s and two of them are set to become free agents after a disappointing first-round exit, those could wind up being valuable swap rights.
Additionally, the Sixers can currently trade the following second-round draft picks:
- 2027 Bucks pick
- 2028 Pistons pick (top-55 protected)
- 2029 Sixers pick
- 2030 Sixers pick
They can’t trade their 2027 or 2028 second-round picks for now because they’re tied up conditionally in the first-round picks that they owe to the Spurs and Nets. If their 2025 first-round pick conveys to the Spurs next summer, they will be able to trade their 2027 second-round pick afterward. The same goes for their 2028 second-round pick if their 2027 or 2028 first-rounder conveys to the Nets.
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