NBA teams have to reduce their rosters to 15 players in about four hours, but the Sixers aren’t quite ready to give up their 20-man preseason roster limit quite yet. According to a team release, Philadelphia has signed Dionte Christmas, bringing the club’s roster count back up to 20.
Christmas, who played his college ball at Temple, saw his only NBA action back in 2013/14 with the Suns. In 31 games for Phoenix, Christmas averaged 2.3 PPG and 1.2 RPG in 6.4 minutes per contest. He has played for various international teams in the years since then.
On the surface, Christmas looks like an unusual pickup for the Sixers. He’s unlikely to make the 15-man roster, so Philadelphia may intend to have him head to the D-League, but the 30-year-old isn’t the sort of developmental prospect the team would typically stash at Delaware. We’ll have to wait and see what the 76ers have in mind for the Philadelphia native.
Assuming Christmas’ deal isn’t fully guaranteed, the Sixers are currently carrying nine players on non-guaranteed or partially guaranteed salaries. They’ll have to waive five players by 5:00pm eastern time today to get down to 15.