Free agency in the NBA is set to begin on Thursday evening at 6 p.m. EST and it is widely believed that the Philadelphia 76ers will make an offer to P.J. Tucker to pry him away from the Miami Heat. Tucker has connections to both James Harden and Daryl Morey from their time with the Houston Rockets.
Combine those connections with Joel Embiid wanting him in Philadelphia, and at the moment, it appears that Tucker is going to be the guy to join the Sixers. People around the league would even be surprised if Tucker didn’t end up in the City of Brotherly Love.
However, things are going to get tricky for the Sixers over the next few days. Harden is likely going to pick up his $47.4 million player option for the 2022-23 season and then sign a 2-year extension later in the summer to stay with the Sixers. Philadelphia would then have $151.7 million in salary tied up in 13 players on the roster.
Per Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer, the addition of De’Anthony Melton and his $8.2 million salary makes life complicated a bit.
Pompey explained what the Sixers have to do in order to acquire Tucker:
Right now, all the Sixers have to offer are minimum contracts and an MLE around $6.4 million after acquiring De’Anthony Melton and his $8.25 million salary in a draft-night trade with the Memphis Grizzlies.
The Sixers could send Melton to a team that would take on his salary without sending a player back to create the space needed to acquire Tucker. They just wouldn’t be able to aggregate his salary along with another player to make the deal work. However, it wouldn’t make sense to get rid of the three-and-D player who provides what they need.
Another avenue for the Sixers could be an attempt to package a combination of Furkan Korkmaz ($5 million), Matisse Thybulle ($4.3 million), and George Niang ($3.4 million) to a team without getting a player back in return.
The Sixers very clearly want Tucker at this point and he makes a lot of sense. He fills the need for needing toughness and he is an excellent corner 3-point shooter which is the spot that gets the most open looks next to Harden and Joel Embiid.
As Pompey mentioned, it wouldn’t make much sense to move Melton. He fills another need for Philadelphia as somebody off their bench who can provide help on both ends of the floor and Georges Niang is a big piece of the bench unit as well. That means that Furkan Korkmaz, Matisse Thybulle, and probably Shake Milton are going to be available in order to clear space for Tucker.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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