The Philadelphia 76ers are planning to make a splash early in free agency when it opens up on Thursday evening at 6 p.m. EST and in order to do what they want to do, they have to clear some money off their books.
The Sixers have their eyes set on P.J. Tucker and in order to bring in the 2021 NBA champion on the desired 3-year $30 million deal they want to offer him, they needed some help. They could either make a few trades in order to clear space or James Harden could come in and help.
Harden will officially decline his $47.3 million player option for the 2022-23 season and will restructure his deal. This allows Harden to get his money at a little less than the max and it clears the way for Philadelphia to sign P.J. Tucker when free agency opens up on Thursday.
The opt-out could go a long way in reshaping the Sixers’ bench, including that full mid-level exception, $4.1M bi-annual exception and sign-and-trades.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 29, 2022
This shows that Harden is committed to winning and the Sixers will have to do their part now in order to ensure they have the right pieces around the star duo of Harden and Joel Embiid to compete in the 2022-23 season.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
[mm-video type=playlist id=01f09kz5ecxq9bp57b player_id=01f5k5xtr64thj7fw2 image=https://sixerswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]
[listicle id=65481]
[lawrence-related id=65533,65537,65530]