Paul George got himself suspended for 25 games over the weekend for violating the NBA’s anti-drug program. While no specific drug violation has been reported, 25 games is standard for any SPED1 violation. George is not fighting the violation and has said that he was taking a certain drug for his mental health and did not check to see if the substance was banned before using. The fact that the violation coincided with his best play as a Sixer is just a coincidence! Whether we believe his version of events or the coincidence part is irrelevant, I’m here to tell you that this was all a good thing.
How is losing your second most expensive player a good thing?
The minute this happened, my reaction wasn’t anger, incredulity, or even to liquify into my own Sixers-related pool of sadness.2 No, I was excited. VERY excited. When you are suspended by your team, you still get paid. When you get suspended by the NBA, however, that money doesn’t just stick with the team, you get tax relief. For the Sixers, the George suspension gets around $5.8m of credit to the luxury tax (even if George is losing $11m).
Now, I don’t care at all about Josh Harris’s wallet, but he does. Because of that, we are forced to worry about the NBA tax rules. Before the suspension, the Sixers were roughly $7m OVER the luxury tax. That amount is nearly a Kelly Oubre sized gap ($8.4m). With the Sixers recent history of avoiding paying the tax it is a fair worry that they would try to move Oubre to duck the line for the 4th year in a row. With the suspension though, we are now only $1.2m above the line.
That’s a horse of a different color! Shedding $7m (plus enough to sign Walker and Barlow) would not be possible while improving the team. Due to salary matching rules in trades, the only option would be to get an under the cap team like the Nets to absorb his salary for draft capital. That’s a lose-lose for the Sixers. Now, however, it will be much easier to shed that money,
How much to duck the tax?
The Sixers do not need to shed $1.2m to get under the tax, it will be more like $2.8m thanks to the impending standard contracts for Dominick Barlow and Jabari Walker. This is such an easier thing to do than the $8.6m they would have needed without the suspension. Now the options include the much more palatable options of trading Andre Drummond ($5m), Justin Edwards ($2.3m), Eric Gordon ($2.3m), or even Johni Broome ($1.3m). Getting rid of guys who are not essential to the team is so much better than a guy like Oubre, even if all of it is fundamentally frustrating.
What if we, and I know this is crazy, wanted to get better?
One number that I haven’t mentioned is the 1st Apron threshold of $196m. The Paul George relief only pertains to the tax, so the Sixers are still around $1m below the threshold. The 1st Apron has several restrictions that come with it, but most notable to the Sixers, they would not be allowed to aggregate player salaries in trades. For a team lacking mid-level contracts, this is a big problem.
The best way for the Sixers to do all of avoiding the tax, avoiding the apron, and improving the team is to focus on targets either under $4.5m3 in salary or under $12.9m.4 Let’s take the Pelicans for example of each.
- Jose Alvarado is on the books for $4.5m. A trade of Drummond, Eric Gordon, and 2nd round picks gets the Sixers a
lefty relieverbackup PG and misses both the tax and the apron. - Herb Jones has a $13.9m salary this year. If the Sixers traded Drummond, Oubre, and Gordon (plus however many 1sts the Pelicans wanted) the trade would succeed in making the Sixers better and avoiding the first apron, but the team would still pay the tax. Substituting Jared McCain and his $4.2m salary would in theory accomplish everything except the Pelicans are a 1st Apron team and they can’t do it! That’s how tight things are.
It’s a tough play. The team would probably need to get other teams involved in order to spread out the contracts. Unfortunately, that means giving out more draft capital to grease the trades. Daryl Morey is a master at this kind of thing though.
My favorite idea for a trade that helps everyone is sending Jared McCain to the Orlando Magic for Anthony Black. The Nets or Jazz would receive Andre Drummond and Eric Gordon in this scenario, and both would likely be waived promptly. The Magic would receive a protected future first from Philly while the 3rd team would get 2nd rounders for their trouble. The Magic avoid a future cap-tastrophy but get the shooting they are so desperate for while the Sixers get another ball handler who happens to have the size they need.
Oh right, what about Paul George?
Paul George will be back on March 25th with 10 games to go in the regular season. In that time, he gets to workout with the team, stay in shape, and not really miss anything other than actually playing in the games. In the meantime, that is more playing time to go around, especially for a guy not getting any run lately like Jared McCain.
Are 10 games enough time to get acclimated with the rest of the team in game scenarios? I mean, hopefully, right? He is not a fulcrum of the offense, but more like the grease. His ability to do anything without being essential for anything is great to have but not irreplaceable. In the time he’s gone, the team shouldn’t fall out of playoff contention but may need to contend for the play-in. That’s fine.
Anyway, thank you Paul George for making more options possible. The NBA Trade Deadline is Thursday, February 5th at 3pm EST.
Philly Front Office 
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