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NBA 2024 Offseason Check-In: Philadelphia 76ers

September 24th 2024 at 3:40pm CST by Luke Adams

Hoops Rumors is checking in on the 2024 offseason for all 30 NBA teams, recapping the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures, and more. We’ll take a look at each team’s offseason moves and consider what might still be coming before the regular season begins. Today, we’re focusing on the Philadelphia 76ers.

Free agent signings

  • Paul George: Four years, maximum salary ($211,584,940). Includes fourth-year player option and 15% trade kicker. Signed using cap room.
  • Tyrese Maxey: Five years, maximum salary ($203,852,600). Re-signed using Bird rights.
  • Caleb Martin: Four years, $35,040,704. Includes fourth-year player option, 15% trade kicker, and $5,256,106 in additional unlikely incentives. Signed using cap room.
  • Kelly Oubre: Two years, $16,365,150. Includes second-year player option. Re-signed using room exception. Waived right to veto trade.
  • KJ Martin: Two years, $16,000,000. Second year non-guaranteed. Re-signed using Bird rights.
  • Andre Drummond: Two years, $10,000,000. Includes second-year player option. Signed using cap room.
  • Eric Gordon: Two years, minimum salary ($6,772,731). Includes second-year player option. Signed using minimum salary exception.
  • Reggie Jackson: One year, minimum salary. Signed using minimum salary exception.
  • Kyle Lowry: One year, minimum salary. Re-signed using minimum salary exception.
  • Guerschon Yabusele: One year, minimum salary. Signed using minimum salary exception.
  • Jared Brownridge: One year, minimum salary. Non-guaranteed (Exhibit 10). Signed using minimum salary exception.
    • Note: Brownridge was subsequently waived.
  • Max Fiedler: One year, minimum salary. Non-guaranteed (Exhibit 10). Signed using minimum salary exception.
  • Judah Mintz: One year, minimum salary. Non-guaranteed (Exhibit 10). Signed using minimum salary exception.

Trades

  • Acquired the Mavericks’ 2031 second-round pick from the Mavericks in a six-team trade in exchange for Buddy Hield (sign-and-trade; to Warriors).

Draft picks

  • 1-16: Jared McCain
    • Signed to rookie scale contract (four years, $19,448,588).
  • 2-41: Adem Bona
    • Signed to four-year, minimum salary contract ($7,895,796). First year guaranteed. Second year partially guaranteed ($977,689). Third year non-guaranteed. Fourth-year team option.

Two-way signings

Departed/unsigned free agents

Other moves

  • Signed Joel Embiid to a three-year, maximum-salary veteran extension that begins in 2026/27. Projected value of $192,907,008. Includes third-year player option.
  • Waived Paul Reed.

Salary cap situation

  • Went below the cap to use room.
  • Now operating over the cap ($140.6MM), over the luxury tax line ($170.8MM), and between the first tax apron ($178.1MM) and second tax apron ($188.9MM).
  • Carrying approximately $181.5MM in salary.
  • No hard cap.
  • No form of mid-level or bi-annual exception available.
  • No traded player exceptions available.

The offseason so far

It used to be relatively common for NBA teams to hoard cap room in the hopes of landing an All-NBA caliber player as a free agent. That’s famously how the Heat landed LeBron James and Chris Bosh in 2010. It’s how the Warriors were able to lure Kevin Durant to Golden State in 2016. And it’s how stars like Durant (Nets), Kyrie Irving (Nets), and Kawhi Leonard (Clippers) joined new teams in 2019.

Since 2019, however, with tweaks to the Collective Bargaining Agreement allowing veteran contract extensions to become more common than ever, it had become increasingly rare for star players to change teams as free agents. In recent years, players like Fred VanVleet (to the Rockets in 2023), pre-All-Star Jalen Brunson (Knicks in 2022), and post-prime Gordon Hayward (Hornets in 2020) were among the most prominent free agents to change teams via cap room.

All that is to say, when the Sixers decided during the 2023 offseason not to sign Tyrese Maxey to a rookie scale extension, telegraphing their intent to maximize their 2024 cap room in the hopes of landing a star, it was a risky play.

While the 76ers could offer a top free agent the opportunity to team up with Maxey and star center Joel Embiid in Philadelphia, they wouldn’t have the ability to outbid that star’s incumbent team for the right to sign him. It’s entirely possible that each of this year’s top six or seven free agents could have re-signed with their previous clubs, putting the Sixers in a position where they’d have to decide whether to splurge on a couple second-tier free agents like Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Miles Bridges or perhaps target a high-priced trade candidate like Brandon Ingram or Zach LaVine.

Fortunately for the Sixers and their fans, it didn’t play out that way. While four of the top five free agents on our top-50 list (including Maxey) remained with their current teams, Philadelphia was able to secure a commitment from the fifth one – Paul George – after the forward’s negotiations with the Clippers soured.

Like Embiid, George hasn’t been a paragon of health during his prime seasons, having missed time in both the regular season and playoffs due to various injuries over the years, so it’s not as if the four-year, maximum-salary deal the Clippers gave him is risk-free.

But few players in the NBA would have been better fits alongside Maxey and Embiid than George, who is essentially the ideal version of the three-and-D archetype that has become so popular in the league in the last decade. He can handle the toughest wing assignments on defense while also sharing ball-handling and scoring responsibilities on offense with the 76ers’ two other stars.

Maxey’s willingness to wait on his new contract shouldn’t be overlooked or undersold. Keeping his modest $13MM cap hold on the books at the start of free agency instead of having him on the cap for $35MM+ put the Sixers in position to open up maximum-salary cap room for George. It all worked out for Maxey in the end, as he parlayed a Most Improved Player award in 2023/24 into a five-year, maximum-salary deal.

Would he have gotten that same contract if he had torn his ACL on opening night last fall and missed the entire season? Maybe, but it’s worth remembering that it wasn’t just the Sixers who took a risk by going the cap-space route — Maxey could have insisted on long-term security last summer, but by betting on himself and the team, he eventually got his max deal and a new All-Star running mate.

After signing George and Maxey to $200MM+ free agent contracts, the Sixers later extended Embiid on a maximum-salary deal that could pay him nearly $300MM over the next five seasons. Despite his injury history, it was presumably an easy decision for the front office, considering Embiid is a perennial MVP finalist if he’s healthy.

Having made such a huge investment in their three stars, the 76ers didn’t have a ton of flexibility to add complementary pieces around them, but they cleverly used every dollar of their leftover cap room to sign Caleb Martin and Andre Drummond, both of whom should play significant roles. Martin was a valuable two-way contributor in Miami in recent years, while Drummond has been one of the league’s best backup centers and is capable of stepping into the starting lineup if and when Embiid misses time.

Most of the rest of the Sixers signings – including Eric Gordon, Reggie Jackson, Kyle Lowry, Guerschon Yabusele, and second-round pick Adem Bona – were for the minimum. It’s unlikely that all of those players will become productive regular contributors, but the team did pretty well given its salary limitations.

Philadelphia also used its No. 16 overall pick to add rookie guard Jared McCain, its room exception to re-sign starting forward Kelly Oubre, and KJ Martin‘s Bird rights to re-sign him to a two-year, $16MM deal that’s only guaranteed for one season.

That price tag for Martin looks high on the surface, but it’s more about his value as a trade chip than what he’ll provide on the court. Outside of their three stars, no Sixers players are earning more than $8.15MM (Caleb Martin) in 2024/25, so having KJ Martin on a $7.98MM deal could make him a useful salary-matching piece in an in-season deal.

Up next

The Sixers are carrying 14 players on standard contracts, so they could add one more minimum-salary free agent to their roster before opening night if they don’t mind paying the accompanying tax penalty.

They’re approximately $4.6MM away from the second tax apron, but since they can’t take back more salary than they send out in a trade, they should be able to easily avoid surpassing that threshold during the season, even if they carry a 15th man.

It should be a fairly straightforward preseason in Philadelphia though, now that Embiid has signed his extension. Of the 14 players on standard deals, 13 have signed new contracts since July and the 14th (Ricky Council) is in the second year of his deal, so no one else is extension-eligible.

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