[UPDATE: Andre Drummond and Kelly Oubre have exercised their player options, Eric Gordon has declined his player option, and Lonnie Walker IV and Jared Butler had their team options declined]
The NFL likes to spread out its offseason just a bit to give teams and fans a chance to breath and really take in each event. Not the NBA. They like to cram everything in all at once. We went from Game 7, to the Draft, to the start of Free Agency all within the span of 9 days. With the Draft now in the books, it is time to prepare for what the Sixers can do next. We are going to discuss assumptions about the team, needs, and the cap.
Assumptions
Every team will tell its fanbase that it’s trying to win, but that isn’t true. The Nets are absolutely NOT trying to win next year. Utah probably isn’t either nor is New Orleans. Other teams like Portland, Washington, and Charlotte would like to win but they aren’t going to be doing anything special to get there. If these teams are bad, they get a higher draft pick (whoops, not New Orleans, they traded their pick) and that works for them. The Sixers do not have this luxury. Because they did not convey their 2025 1st to OKC, it is only Top-4 protected next year. Absent any craziness, they won’t have a 1st rounder next season.
We also have a little (a lot) worry about the health of Joel Embiid. Regardless of whether he can play or how effective he is, the Sixers are going to act like they are fringe contenders this season. That means they aren’t tearing it down, but will not be going all in either. If Embiid is done, the tear down would likely start next season. This is one of the reasons why you didn’t see a trade of the 3rd pick. Trading down for a role player would have been more of a win now move. VJ Edgecombe was the perfect pick because he is not only a pick for the future, but was one of the few players in the draft ready to step in to minutes right away.
Anyway, the team is going to try to be good but without sacrificing for the future.
Team Needs
The Sixers have guards for days. Tyrese Maxey, Jared McCain, Quentin Grimes (he isn’t officially back), and Edgecombe could probably all start for teams. Because of other needs, 3 of them might play at a time for Philly. Anyway, we have guards covered. What don’t we have?
- Power Forward
- 3 and D wing depth
To even make a semi-competitive roster, the Sixers need some size and more shooting. Right now, Paul George might be the starting 4 during the 45 games he plays. Guerschon Yabusele likely will not be back this year which puts us in a bind. The depth chart as currently constructed looks like this minus 2/4ths (Ricky Council IV and Lonnie Walker IV who I cannot imagine make this team):
| C | Joel Embiid | Adem Bona | Andre Drummond |
| PF | Paul George | Johni Broome | Alex Reese^ |
| SF | Kelly Oubre | Justin Edwards | Ricky Council IV |
| SG | Quentin Grimes* | VJ Edgecombe | Hunter Sallis^ |
| PG | Tyrese Maxey | Jared McCain |
^ – Two Way Contract
– * – Restricted Free Agent
The Cap
Let’s take a look at what the Sixers have to play with money-wise and see if we can find a contract for Quentin Grimes and anyone else. First, take a look at some values you need to know about the salary cap:
- Salary Cap: $154.5m
- Luxury Tax Threshold: $187.9m
- First Apron: $195.9m
- Second Apron: $207.8m
- Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception: $14.1m – only if you are over the cap but under the tax line and will finish under the First Apron
- Taxpayer MLE: $5.7m – only if you are over the tax line
- Biannual Exception: around $5m
- Empty roster spot: $1.2m
Second, the following contracts are guaranteed and likely not going anywhere.
| Joel Embiid | $55.2m |
| Paul George | $51.7 |
| Tyrese Maxey | $38m |
| VJ Edgecombe | $11.1m |
| Jared McCain | $4.2m |
| Justin Edwards | $2m |
| Adem Bona | $2m |
| Johni Broome | $2m |
| Minimum Cap Hold x4 | $4.8m |
| Total | |
| $171m |
Here are the guaranteed contracts the Sixers are going to try to get rid of:
| Kelly Oubre | $8.4m |
| Andre Drummond | $5m |
| Total (less cap hold) | |
| $13.4m – $2.4m = $11m |
The team also has 3 non-guaranteed contracts in Lonnie Walker IV ($2.9m), Jared Butler ($2.3m), and Ricky Council IV ($2.2m). If all 3 return, that would be an additional $3.8m to the cap. Where does that leave us???
Between $171m and probably $182m. Ok, so how do we resign Quentin Grimes and fix our size problem?
Making Moves
Quentin Grimes
Grimes is a restricted free agent. This means the Sixers have the ability to match any offer he officially gets from another team. It also means they have his Bird Rights, meaning they can sign him to virtually any contract they want, other rules be damned. Let’s say he doesn’t get any other offers though, that means he is stuck with the Qualifying Offer of around $9m.
Who could possibly offer him? The Nets are everyone’s boogeyman when it comes to poaching free agents. They currently have around $30m to spend but could clear more room with trades of Nic Claxton or Cam Johnson. In theory, they could put up $20m+ per season and the Sixers probably wouldn’t match. Would they though? They just received a first round pick for helping out the Hawks and Celtics facilitate a move. After using all 5 of their 1st round picks in the draft, they are probably looking to be bad organically this season rather than level up. I don’t see them overpaying for Grimes and wasting cap space unproductively.
Can anyone else give him an offer? Well, yes. The non-taxpayer mid-level exception is valued at $14.1m. For teams with access to the full MLE, this means they can give him an offer starting at that full $14.1m per season. That’s probably around what Grimes would be worth on the open market anyway. The Sixers would gladly match or slightly exceed that number to keep him under contract next season. If he wants to stay, he signs for around 4/$66m-$70m. If not, he signs his qualifying offer for 1/$9m. Sixers are happy either way.
Guershon Yabusele and Moving Bad Contracts
Best case scenario is the Sixers find a way to get rid of the trio of unwanted guaranteed salaries. I can see Oubre getting moved for positive value, but I wouldn’t mind him coming back either. If they could move them without adding salary and Grimes comes back for around $15m, then theoretically, the Sixers could use around $11m of the NTMLE to sign Yabusele. That would make everything very tight though.
Also, while it is easy to just wipe away those 3 contracts for writing purposes, in real life it will be a chore. I thought there was a possibility that the Sixers could move off Andre Drummond by attaching #35, but that didn’t happen. So, what can we do?
The Sixers will not be moving any of these salaries for first round picks, but we do have second rounders ready to do some facilitating:
- 2027 via GSW or PHX
- 2027 own
- 2028 via DET (fake, protected 31-55)
- 2028 via GSW
- 2028 own
- 2029 own
- 2030 via PHX or POR
- 2030 via WSH
Any two of those could probably be used to get off of Drummond while you might be able to get off of Oubre and Gordon for nothing. As much as no one likes to use resources to get off of bad contracts, the Sixers will almost definitely do this. The reason isn’t to improve the team, but because ownership has made it clear over the last few trade deadlines that it does not like paying the luxury tax if it does not have to.
In a perfect world, we take their $16.9m and trade it for something good, but that would mean using a future first round pick in the move. I am not sure that is something we want to do. Great, now I need to do a list of possible $15m-ish guys that I would trade a first round pick for!
Still, even if all 3 go, we are looking at around $185m in total salary with Grimes. That is $3m under the cap and $11m under the First Apron. They cannot use more than $5.7m of the MLE if they hit the Apron though. It is a problem. Every dollar Grimes does not get can theoretically go to Yabusele assuming we shed the 3 contracts.
Priorities
As a quick checklist, here is what the Sixers will be looking to do come June 30:
- Resign Quentin Grimes and hope he doesn’t get offered by any other team
- Trade Kelly Oubre for something
Trade Eric Gordon for anything- Bribe someone to trade for Andre Drummond
- Keep Yabusele on the radar
- If no Yabusele, then find a PF or two for either the minimum or likely the TP-MLE
- Pray for Joel
Philly Front Office 
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