The 66ers' 2024-25 cap sheet looks either exciting or scary, depending on who you ask. Joel Embiid is the only player with a confirmed contract for next year. Let's take a look:
| player | 2024-25 Salary |
| Joel Embiid | $51,415,938 |
| Paul Reed | $7,723,000 |
| 16th pick | $4,032,240 (estimated) |
| Jeff Dowtin Jr. | $2,196,970 |
| Ricky Council IV | $1,891,857 |
Some will find this appealing — a testament to Sixers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey's ability to reshuffle nearly an entire roster in a single summer — while others will worry that executing such an operation during an offseason is impractical. There is merit to both arguments.
Morey has proven as much as any executive in recent NBA history that trades are a big part of building a team, especially when you're trying to add star-level talent and build around it to assemble a serious championship contender. And that doesn't just mean making trades in the summer; nearly every big team makes some kind of midseason trade to bolster their squad.
However, to facilitate such a move, a team must usually have at least one mid-level contract in place to match salaries with a potential trade partner. Otherwise, a team can only trade for players with relatively low salaries, greatly narrowing the pool of potential players.
This has hurt the Sixers many times before: In 2023, the team traded a fading but still valuable Matisse Thybulle for Jalen McDaniels, who was out of the rotation by the end of the playoffs, rather than using another big salary to try and bring back a veteran.In 2022, the team traded two key starters, Seth Curry and Andre Drummond, to replace Ben Simmons with James Harden, but couldn't replace those two workhorses because they didn't have a mid-range salary. In 2021, they had to combine the salaries of three players just to scrape together enough money to acquire George Hill.
Paul Reed is the only player on the 6.7 team with a salary that could even be considered mid-range, but it's less than ideal for a salary pad, and even if Morey, known for his aggressiveness, tries to upgrade the 6.7 team's roster before next year's NBA trade deadline, he won't have many options, regardless of what the actual situation is at that point.
That is, unless he chooses to get creative.
For years, I have advocated for the Sixers to try something they have rarely done before: intentionally overpaying role players with the express intent of trading them midseason.
Here's how it would work: The 76ers would choose one of their free-agent bench players — likely KJ Martin if they sign a big name like Paul George because of the collective bargaining agreement, but pretty much anyone if they don't (Robert Covington might be a good choice) — and then sign that player to a contract that pays him well above his actual market value on an annual basis. After Dec. 15, 2024, that player would be trade-eligible.
It's not always easy to convince players to sign such contracts when it's clear a trade is in the future — the Sixers didn't invent the idea, and players and agents are well aware of it — but some players would be willing to sacrifice some certainty of finishing the season in the standings and take a much higher salary than they would normally.
A source with knowledge of the Sixers' thinking suggested the concept could certainly be on the table as the team looks to maximize its flexibility and options going forward.
Most of the discussion surrounding the Sixers this summer will revolve around big names, including the acquisition of George, Tyrese Maxey's five-year contract expected to be worth more than $200 million and possible extension negotiations with Embiid.
Of course, what the Sixers' roster looks like when the summer ends is important, but it's just as important that they prepare to properly strengthen their team through the 2024-25 season.
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