Philly Front Office

The NBA Draft is now in the rearview mirror which means team building can start in earnest. Most of the contenders around the league have entered the trade market with Giannis going to Miami and LaMelo Ball headed to Minnesota, so where does that leave the Sixers? Well, a step below. That doesn’t mean the team doesn’t have options but they will likely not be playing with the big boys. Let’s go through the Sixers’ needs, assets, and possible signings.¹

Sixers Draft Labaron Philon at #22

Roster (click to expand)

• LOCKS (6)
  • Joel Embiid
    • $58m salary
    • 3 years remaining
  • Paul George
    • $54m salary
    • 2 years remaining
    • Just when it looked like he might be regaining some value to either be useful to the Sixers or at least not a set of cement boots to float in for trades, he got himself suspended and destroyed his good will. Nothing short of a great playoffs can save this disaster
  • Tyrese Maxey
    • $41m salary
    • 3 years remaining
  • VJ Edgecombe
    • $11.5m salary
    • 4 years remaining
  • Labaron Philon
    • $3.6m salary
  • Johni Broome
    • $2.1m salary
    • 3 years remaining
    • Dead weight. His salary is guaranteed this season but not for the next two.
• SECURED LIKE BREAD TWIST TIES (5)
  • Dominick Barlow
    • $3.4m salary non-guaranteed team option
  • Trendon Watford
    • $2.8m salary non-guaranteed team option
  • Justin Edwards
    • $2.4m guaranteed but easily movable
  • Adem Bona
    • $2.3m non-guaranteed
  • Jabari Walker
    • $2.5m non-guaranteed (except $250k)
• FREE AGENTS
  • Quentin Grimes, Kelly Oubre, Andre Drummond, Kyle Lowry, Jabari Walker, Cameron Payne

Budget (click to expand)

• NBA NUMBERS (estimates)
  • Salary Cap – $165m
  • Tax Line – $201m
    • We all know that this is the only number the Sixers care about
  • 1st Apron – $209m
  • 2nd Apron – $222m
  • Empty Roster Spot (must have 12) – $1.4m
  • Non-Taxpayer MLE – $15.1m
  • Tax-Payer MLE – $6.1m
  • Bi-Annual Exception – $5.5m
• SIXERS
  • Locks: $170.2m
  • Locks + Bread Ties: $183.4m

Needs

An underrated need on last year’s team was a backup ball handler. Instead of going out and getting someone like Jose Alvarado, the Sixers traded away Jared McCain. The strategy didn’t work and Tyrese Maxey was run into the ground. Well, now they have Labaron Philon who should lock down the role fairly easily. One less thing to worry about! So, what else needs fixing?

• Wing Defenders/Shooters – I was under the unwavering belief that the Sixers were going to take some kind of wing in the first round of the Draft. Maybe I was wrong because I didn’t understand the assignment or the Sixers just couldn’t resist a guy like Philon falling to them. Either way, what was a need then, remains a need now. We have Paul George and possibly the return of Kelly Oubre. That would essentially be it for the forward position. With the possibility of someone offering Oubre the full MLE, his time in Philly might be over. So that leaves us with a 36-year-old to guard the most athletic position in the NBA. Not good. One of the things the Sixers lack is general competence. What I mean is someone with a defined job that they can do on the decently cheap. Whether it’s shooting or defense (god forbid both), the Sixers don’t have guys who can take up minutes and help the team in some way (like damn near all good teams do).
• Rebounding – During the season, Domminick Barlow and Jabari Walker were rebounding revelations. It had simply been so long since we had seen a Sixer fight for rebounds and get them so regularly. To have two two-way guys give that kind of effort was unexpected to say the least. They just weren’t very playable in the playoffs. While they are useful depth guys, we need someone who can rebound AND have some other type of skill set that allows them to fill a bigger role.
• Back-up Center – We all like Adem Bona and hope that he can make a leap in Year 3, but because of the constant uncertainty over Joel Embiid’s knees, the Sixers need to always carry a competent 3rd center. Andre Drummond is not that. The preference is to get someone who can shoot at least a little bit to increase the possibility of playing along side one of the other two on occasion.

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Targets

The Sixers have roughly $17.5m to spend before hitting the tax line. They can go over the tax line by using the NTPMLE, but would be capped at the 1st Apron. Things get technical, but it would be virtually impossible for the Sixers to sign Oubre/Grimes AND use the NTPMLE. Instead, they would be forced to use the lower taxpayer MLE. Basically, the Sixers can either forget Kelly Oubre to sign a higher quality free agent or you bring him back and get a lesser one or two with the biannual exception. As always, the 1st Apron has been electrified and is unpassable for the Sixers

Also of note, most teams do not have more than the MLE to spend in free agency. Anything larger would have to be done in a sign and trade which teams are reluctant to do in many situations. Even if you think these guys are worth more than $15m per season, the market won’t let them get that,

• Non-Tax Payer MLEs
  • John Collins – PF – Collins has finally found a real role in the NBA after years of trying to do too much. He rebounds, can play a very small 5, and has legitimate 3 point range now on low volume. He’s probably my top realistic target and fits nicely at still only 29.
  • Tari Eason (RFA) – PF – The Rockets are going to get much more expensive in the near future and might not want to commit to Eason who had a down year. He would be exactly what a team like the Sixers needs though in that he has a makeable shot, plays hard, rebounds, and defends. That’s a Sixers unicorn
  • Jonathan Kuminga (TO) – SF/PF – No one knows what to make of Kuminga who has a club option for 2026 at $24m. The Hawks are probably 50/50 on paying that, though he would be a nice bit of movable salary down the line. On the open market, he is a NTPMLE waiting to happen. The Sixers could look to add potential in the Oubre spot instead of assured competence.
  • Andrew Wiggins (PO) – SF – Wiggins has a $30m player option this season. The Heat would probably like to keep him on a longer term deal at a lower value and would likely just have to beat the NTPMLE to do so.
  • Rui Hachimura – PF – Rui has turned into a very legit shooter, putting up a .443 number from 3 point range last year. That will certainly play from anyone, let alone the PF position. He stretches the floor, but is not the best rebounder in the world.
  • Lu Dort (TO) – Dort is a defensive mastermind who more than makes up for his height with toughness and strength. He can stand around the 3 point line and put it up too, averaging about 5 attempts per game on a decent .344 percentage. The Thunder are up to their neck in payroll right now and will try desperately to trade him instead of just letting him go.
• Tax Payer MLEs
  • Keon Ellis – SG – Ellis is analytics darling who wasted away in Sacramento before wasting away in Cleveland. In theory, he can play defense and shoot 3s, but in practice, he isn’t quite there consistently yet. He’s 26 and could be the opportunity for the Sixers to buy stock in an asset before it takes off. Since the Cavs traded for Ellis last year that means that new GM Gansey is familiar with him.
  • Jock Landale – Landale is a 30-year-old backup center from Australia who can shoot and rebound. Honestly, he should have been a Sixers at the trade deadline last year, but the team wasn’t trying to actually help themselves. He is the kind of guy that can play with and behind Embiid and Bona.
  • Dean Wade – PF – Wade is a glue guy that can do a bit of everything and defend his position and shoot enough to keep teams honest. Gansey was part of the front office team that drafted him and employed him over his 7 years in the NBA.
  • Nikola Vučević – C – Bring Vuc home! The Celtics picked him up after his post-Philadelphia travels took him to Orlando and Chicago. Health has been the issue of late, but he can still shoot and grab rebounds. Vacillating between more and less minutes with the Sixers might actually be good for him at this stage in his career.
• Minimum Vets
  • Thomas Bryant – C – The 29 year old has bounced around the league a lot but can still make for a quality 3rd center with his all around competence in limited minutes.
  • Kyle Anderson – SF – Slo-Mo might be the ideal backup for the Sixers as a competent passer with a high basketball IQ that you can trust to not make things worse. That may sound like a back handed compliment, but then you haven’t watched Sixers basketball. He’s the adult in the room that the team needs.
  • LeBron James – Just kidding. It would be pretty cool if he took the minimum for a year though. If I’m Lebron, I am trying to get an ownership stake in a team as soon as my career ends. What better way to do something like that than hiking up the value with my own very cheap presence? Just a thought.

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Prediction

Quentin Grimes isn’t coming back. Kelly Oubre has been great, but the team needs to start getting younger instead of paying a 31-year-old like Oubre to be competent. A 1-year deal would be one thing, but Oubre probably wants real years and real money for once. In a perfect world, the Sixers would try to sign one of the guys listed in the NTPMLE level first before pivoting back to Oubre if they strike out with everyone else.

Ideally, the Sixers can bring in Tari Eason who would get an expanded role with the team and bring some much-needed toughness to the front court. They could then (hopefully) use the BAE on someone like Keon Ellis. If Eason isn’t available, then bringing back Oubre and signing either Dean Wade or Jock Landale with the tax payer MLE would give the team much needed size while remaining in win-now mode.

1. I wanted to put a space for trades, but while the team has some draft picks in their back pocket, they do not have the movable salary to go after anyone. Would I like a Paul George move even if it meant getting two lesser players in return? Of course I would, but that doesn’t seem like it is on the table anywhere. I’ll try to find possible PG trades later on ↩︎