Tag: reed

2024 NBA free agency: Sixers to reportedly sign veteran wing Caleb Martin away from Heat; waive Paul Reed nba,free,agency,sixers,to,reportedly,sign,veteran,wing,caleb,martin,away,from,heat,waive,paul,reed,liberty,ballers,front-page,nba-free-agency,76ers-free-agency-rumors-news

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The Sixers aren’t done yet.

The team will reportedly sign veteran wing Caleb Martin to a four-year, $32 million deal. To gain the necessary cap space, the Sixers will waive Paul Reed. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski was the first to report the signing and Reed being waived. The final year of Martin’s deal is a player option, per Michael Scotto of HoopsHype.

In Martin, the Sixers get a battle-tested and versatile wing. He averaged a career-best 10.0 point per game last season, though the volatility with Miami’s roster likely contributed to a drop in efficiency. He shot just 43.1% from the field and 34.9% from deep, his lowest marks since 2020-21.

Though Martin has consistently raised his level of play in the postseason. His best stretch might’ve occurred during the Heat’s surprising run to the Finals in 2023. He averaged 12.7 points per game that postseason on 65.7% true shooting. He saved his best performances for the Eastern Conference Finals, where he averaged 19.3 points in seven games against the Boston Celtics. Across 28 playoff games the past two seasons, Martin has averaged 12.5 points per game on 51.8/42.6/85.0 shooting splits.

Aside from the offense, Martin is a super versatile defender. At 6-foot-5 and with a 6-foot-10 wingspan, he’s capable of guarding one through four. That could be key for the Sixers as the roster currently lacks any real players that fit the four position. Martin is plenty capable of scaling up. With Martin, Paul George and Kelly Oubre, Jr., the Sixers’ potential starting group features a switchable and talented defensive trio of wings.

As simplistic as it sounds, Martin is able to dribble, pass, shoot and defend. Oftentimes it’s felt like the Sixers had so many players who were specialists of some kind. Martin offers plenty of versatility in a sport that’s becoming increasingly positionless.

Martin, who went to NC State before transferring to Nevada, is now 28 years old. He spent his first two seasons with the Charlotte Hornets before spending the last three in Miami. His twin brother, Cody, is currently with the Hornets.

For the Sixers and Reed, it’s surely a little bittersweet. The big man from DePaul was a draft success story for the team. Reed was the third-to-last pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, signed a two-way deal with the Sixers and went on to win the G League Rookie of the Year and MVP. After a successful postseason run in 2023, Reed signed an offer sheet with the Utah Jazz that the Sixers matched. After a difficult season in 2023-24, a clause in the contract that was meant to hurt the Sixers actually helped them. With the team failing to make the second round, Reed’s $7.7 million cap hit became non-guaranteed.

All the Sixers’ reported moves, including their agreement with Paul George, can become official starting at 12:01 p.m. Saturday. With Martin, the team will have nine players either officially under contract or agreed to terms. Second-round pick Adem Bona would make 10. Expect a bunch of minimum deals to come shortly.

How the Sixers could get creative with Paul Reed’s contract this offseason how,the,sixers,could,get,creative,with,paul,reed,s,contract,this,offseason,liberty,ballers,front-page,76ers-analysis

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Because the Sixers didn’t win a playoff series this year, Paul Reed’s future is now up in the air.

The offer sheet that Reed signed with the Utah Jazz last offseason stipulated that his $7.7 million salary for the 2024-25 season would only become guaranteed if his team advanced to the second round of the playoffs. Instead, the New York Knicks and Joel Embiid’s case of Bell’s palsy helped ensure Reed’s contract would remain non-guaranteed through Jan. 10.

The Sixers could waive Reed this offseason and be left without a dead cap hit, which they’d likely consider if they land a third max-contract player. Cutting him would be their path to still having meaningful cap space, along with the $8.0 million room mid-level exception once they were capped out. But they don’t have a nearby deadline by which they have to make a decision. They can see how the offseason plays out and proceed accordingly.

Since Reed’s full contract is non-guaranteed, he’d count as $0 in outgoing salary in trades unless the Sixers guaranteed some or all of his deal. But as long as they stay under the salary cap after a trade, they don’t need to worry about salary-matching rules. If anything, they could leave him non-guaranteed to sweeten a trade offer, allowing his next team to decide whether to keep him as depth, re-route him or waive him for cap relief.

The Sixers could also manipulate their offseason order of operations to take advantage of Reed’s contract in a creative way. If they keep him on their books and guarantee his full salary, they could flip him to acquire a much higher-paid player even if they’re over the cap at the time.

Under the NBA’s new collective bargaining agreement, trades involving two teams below either apron have looser salary-matching rules than they once did. Teams that send between $7.25 million and $29 million in salary can take that amount of salary back plus $7.5 million. In other words, a team could trade a $7.5 million contract for a $15 million contract, or a $29 million contract for a $36.5 million contract.

With Reed set to earn $7.7 million next season, the Sixers could flip him for a player earning as much as $15.2 million as long as they stay below the first apron after the trade. They would then be hard-capped at the first apron for the remainder of the league year. Depending on how the rest of their offseason shakes out, that could be their best chance to round out their roster and add more depth.

For instance, let’s say they sign Paul George for his full max salary of $49.4 million. They could have as much as $16.7 million in cap space if they waive Reed and Ricky Council IV, trade the No. 16 overall pick, turn down their team option on Jeff Dowtin Jr. and renounce the rights to all of their free agents. They’ll likely wind up having less than that because they keep Reed, don’t trade the pick or re-sign some of their own players.

The Sixers could still have as much as $10.2 million in cap space along with the $8.0 million room MLE with a George max deal, Reed and Joel Embiid’s contracts and Tyrese Maxey’s cap hold on their books. Once they spent that cap space, they could flip Reed for a higher-paid player to upgrade that spot without having the cap space to fill it otherwise. They’d effectively be turning $7.7 million of cap space into $15.2 million, except they could only spend that on trades.

The Sixers would still be slightly out of range salary-wise on Lu Dort ($16.5 million), Deni Avdjia ($15.6 million) and P.J. Washington ($15.5 million) on the off-chance that any of them became available this offseason. However, they could squeeze Dorian Finney-Smith ($14.9 million), Luke Kennard ($14.8 million team option) or Naz Reid ($14.0 million) in with the salary-matching buffer on Reed’s contract. Larry Nance Jr. ($11.2 million), Gabe Vincent ($11.0 million) and Maxi Kleber ($11.0 million) could be slightly less expensive options.

In some respects, the Jazz did the Sixers a favor in the way they structured Reed’s contract. If he had a team or player option instead of a non-guaranteed salary, he’d have his contractual fate determined by late June either way. Instead, the Sixers can keep him on their books heading into July and pivot as needed from there.

If the Sixers land a third max-contract star, it wouldn’t be surprising if they just waive Reed outright. If they snag someone on a slightly smaller deal—Brandon Ingram, Donovan Mitchell or Mikal Bridges, for instance—they might have enough cap space to round out their roster even with Reed’s contract still on their books. From there, they could evaluate their options at backup center without him and explore the trade market for him as well.

There’s no guarantee that the Sixers will waive Reed right as the offseason begins, though. In fact, it would behoove them to maintain their optionality with his contract for as long as possible, unless they needed his $7.7 million of cap space to sign a free agent.

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.