CAMDEN, N.J.–The Philadelphia 76ers pulled the trigger on their first offseason move on Thursday when they acquired De’Anthony Melton for the No. 23 pick and Danny Green in a deal that helps the team move forward.
Now, the attention turns to free agency. The Sixers lost a bit of money to use during the period due to the trade as their cap commitments increased from $2.5 million (the No. 23 pick) to $8.25 million. Therefore, using the non-taxpayer mid-level exception is likely out of the question, but there are still some cheap options out there.
The Sixers still have some needs that must be addressed during the free agency period such as wing depth help and they could still use a backup big man as well. With that being said, president Daryl Morey is excited about what the team can do in late June heading into July.
“We’re excited for free agency,” said Morey. “We don’t know how it’ll play out, but Josh (Harris) and David (Blitzer) have given us every ability to do whatever we need to do in free agency to make the team better now and hopefully another rotation piece. That’s a little ways away and who knows how it’ll play out.”
In terms of what they can sell to potential free agents, the Sixers have two stars in Joel Embiid and James Harden who are guys that players want to play with. They know those two can take games over in the blink of an eye and that is what the Sixers can sell to players to play in Philadelphia.
“People want to play here,” added Morey. “People love our team, people love playing with Joel, people love playing with James, love playing with Tobias (Harris). We’re optimistic about free agency, but we have no idea how that’s gonna play out.”
While Morey and the Sixers have a lot to sell to free agents, there are still money constraints. Philadelphia will have to work within the confines of the CBA to figure things out in terms of helping them find the players they need to win a title.
“Josh and David are gonna let us spend whatever we need to spend,” Morey explained. “The CBA constrains us in certain ways so sometimes you don’t get everyone you want because of that. We think mapping it out as best we can with quite a few options, maybe 8-to-12, we think can contribute and might be in the range of what we’re allowed to do. We feel pretty good that we might get someone that can contribute and be in our playoff rotation.”
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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