3:32pm: The 76ers have confirmed the five cuts listed below, announcing in a press release that they’ve waived Paul, Webb, Barber, Long, and Christmas.
2:35pm: The Sixers entered the day with 19 players, and will waive at least four of those players to get down to the regular-season limit. According to Jake Fischer of Liberty Ballers (Twitter link), Brandon Paul will be one of those cuts. Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer reports (via Twitter) that James Webb III, Cat Barber, and Shawn Long will also be released by the club.
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In addition to the 19 players they had coming into the day, the Sixers also signed Dionte Christmas to a contract. While it hasn’t been officially reported or confirmed yet, Christmas will likely be Philadelphia’s fifth cut.
Webb, Barber, and Long are all candidates to join the Delaware 87ers, Philadelphia’s D-League affiliate, since the 76ers hold their rights. However, Paul has received interest from other NBA teams and there has been no talk of him heading to Delaware, a source tells Jessica Camerato of CSNPhilly.com (Twitter link). Christmas doesn’t exactly fit the bill of a developmental prospect, but it looks like the Sixers may have picked up the 30-year-old today to send him to the D-League — a team can assign up to four preseason cuts to its D-League affiliate, assuming the player agrees.
Paul, Long, Webb, and Barber had partial guarantees worth $155K, $65K, $65K, and $50K respectively. Those figures will continue to count against Philadelphia’s cap. Assuming the Sixers don’t make any more cuts, they’ll head into the season with Robert Covington, Jerami Grant, T.J. McConnell, and Hollis Thompson on non-guaranteed or partially guaranteed salaries.
Additionally, as Fischer notes, Nik Stauskas has made Philadelphia’s roster to start the year. The former eighth overall pick has a fully guaranteed salary worth nearly $3MM, but there was some uncertainty about whether the Sixers would have room for him. For now, at least, it seems they do.
These players almost made an NBA team but it was the Sixers. If they were NCAA players, they’d probably also be on the bubble. Other NBA teams wouldn’t give them a sniff, but it’s the Sixers lol.
The Sixers have two all-world talent players (Simmons, Embiid), two pretty decent guys (Noel, Okafor) and a bunch of scrubs.
Webb had 65K guaranteed.
Good catch, thanks.