The Philadelphia 76ers wasted no time making use of their $60-plus million of salary-cap house as soon as NBA free company started at 6 p.m. EST on Sunday.
First, they agreed to a two-year, $10-plus million take care of middle Andre Drummond, in line with Shams Charania of The Athletic. In addition they landed capturing guard Eric Gordon on a one-year, veteran-minimum contract, per Kyle Neubeck of PHLY Sports activities, and introduced again Kelly Oubre Jr. on a two-year, $16.3 million deal, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Then, at 3:30 a.m. ET, the largest domino of free company fell.
Due to these strikes, the Sixers now have the third-best odds (+850) of any group to win the 2024-25 NBA championship, trailing solely the reigning champion Boston Celtics (+300) and the 2022-23 champion Denver Nuggets (+750), per FanDuel Sportsbook.
The Sixers aren’t achieved but, although. Relying on how they construction their strikes—particularly, whether or not they use the $8.0 million room mid-level exception to signal Oubre or match him into their remaining cap house—they nonetheless might have as much as $9.2 million in spending energy even when they maintain Ricky Council IV ($1.9 million) on their books. To succeed in that quantity, they’d need to waive the non-guaranteed contract of Paul Reed ($7.7 million) and surrender the rights to all of their remaining free brokers aside from Tyrese Maxey.
Maxey’s cap maintain is the important thing to the Sixers’ total offseason. As a result of he held off on signing an extension final summer season, he solely counts as $13.0 million in opposition to the Sixers’ books till he inks his new deal. He agreed to a five-year, $203.9 million max take care of a $35.1 million beginning wage on Monday, per Wojnarowski, so he successfully gave the Sixers an additional $22 million to spend that they would not have had if he signed an extension final yr.
As soon as the Sixers spend the rest of their cap house, they will nonetheless be capable to supply minimum-salary contracts to any free agent. They’ll solely hope that the attract of taking part in alongside George, Maxey and Joel Embiid will assist appeal to just a few veteran ring-chasers, significantly with swingman Nicolas Batum reportedly not returning to Philadelphia.
Because the Sixers look to spherical out the remainder of their roster, they will have to be conscious of the league’s new collective bargaining settlement, which is successfully why they have been in a position to land George within the first place. Sure roster-building strikes set off laborious caps on the first apron ($178.1 million) or second apron ($188.9 million), and the Sixers venture to be dangerously near the primary apron as soon as they signal Maxey to his max deal.
With eight gamers on their books (Embiid, George, Maxey, Drummond, Gordon, Oubre, Council and rookie guard Jared McCain), the Sixers at present venture to be solely $16.9 million beneath the primary apron. In the event that they maintain Reed, they’d be solely $10.3 million beneath. They’d barely have sufficient room below the primary apron to spherical out their roster with six minimal contracts ($2.1 million every).
Groups get hard-capped on the first apron in the event that they purchase a participant by way of sign-and-trade or take again extra wage in a commerce than they ship out. Doing both of these issues would tremendously scale back the Sixers’ flexibility to fill out their remaining roster spots or make midseason modifications forward of the February commerce deadline.
There’s nonetheless loads for the Sixers to type out within the coming hours or days, however they now have a championship-caliber basis in place. This was the end result of a yearlong plan to maximise their monetary flexibility as soon as James Harden picked up his participant choice and requested a commerce final offseason.
“What we’re trying to do is have the most effective group doable this yr, but additionally have the power that, if we get right into a next-season state of affairs, to be a really distinctive group with probably the most cap room of a group that’s nearly as good as us,” group president Daryl Morey advised Anthony Gargano, then of 97.5 The Fanatic, final July. “That’s a really distinctive state of affairs to have.”
On the time, Morey particularly talked about how the league’s new CBA would put “huge constraints downward on salaries within the league,” which might put the Sixers in a “very distinctive state of affairs” since they have been “the one group with a prime participant {that a} participant can be part of.”
The Sixers weren’t refined about wanting so as to add a top-tier wing particularly. At his end-of-season press convention, Morey predicted the Sixers would have “numerous change” this offseason and closely hinted that the Sixers have been going star-hunting this offseason.
George matches that description to a T. Though he is coming off a disappointing playoff exhibiting this previous season, he averaged 26.9 factors on 44.1% capturing, 9.6 rebounds and 5.4 assists per recreation through the Clippers’ run to the Western Convention Finals in 2020-21. He additionally helped information the Indiana Pacers to back-to-back Japanese Convention Finals appearances within the early 2010s.
In Philadelphia, George can slide in as a No. 3 choice behind Embiid and Maxey, the place his capturing prowess ought to make him an ideal on-court match. He shot 39.7% from deep on practically eight three-point makes an attempt per recreation throughout his 5 years with the Clippers and is especially potent on catch-and-shoot makes an attempt. He drilled 45.4% of his catch-and-shoot three-pointers this previous season and has been above 40% on such appears in 4 of the previous 5 years.
George, a four-time member of the NBA’s All-Protection group, additionally nonetheless routinely grades out as a plus defender. Due to his two-way influence, he was tied with Clippers teammate Kawhi Leonard for the eighth-best estimated plus/minus within the league final season, in line with Dunks and Threes.
George’s contract isn’t with out danger. He’ll have a $56.6 million participant choice for his age-37 season in 2027-28, which might come again to chunk the Sixers. However below the brand new CBA, title home windows would possibly grow to be even shorter than they have been earlier than, and the Sixers are title-building round an oft-injured 30-year-old star middle. Their time is now.
And the Sixers now have their new Massive Three in place.
Except in any other case famous, all stats by way of NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleansing the Glass or Basketball Reference. All wage info by way of Spotrac and salary-cap info by way of RealGM. All odds by way of FanDuel Sportsbook.