Where The Sixers Stand Financially Heading Into 2025 NBA Free Agency

The Philadelphia 76ers headed into the 2024 NBA offseason with the ability to create more than $60 million in salary-cap space. They proceeded to splurge on Paul George, Andre Drummond and Caleb Martin in free agency before re-signing Tyrese Maxey and Kelly Oubre Jr. once they were over the cap.

This offseason, the Sixers have far less financial flexibility. With Maxey, George and Joel Embiid all signed to max contracts, the Sixers are heading into free agency well over the projected $154.6 million salary cap for the 2025-26 season. Those three alone are earning nearly $145 million, so that trio combined with Jared McCain ($4.2 million) and No. 3 overall pick VJ Edgecombe ($11.1 million) push the Sixers over the cap by themselves.

That hasn’t stopped the Sixers from being active in the days leading up to free agency, though. On Friday, news broke that Drummond would be picking up his $5.0 million player option. The Sixers also reportedly declined their $2.3 million team option on Jared Butler and their $2.9 million team option on Lonnie Walker IV. They also declined their $1.95 million team option on Justin Edwards as well, although they reportedly plan to re-sign him to a three-year contract with two guaranteed years.

On Sunday, Oubre picked up his $8.4 million player option, while Eric Gordon declined his $3.5 million player option. That leaves the Sixers with nearly $177.6 million in guaranteed salary heading into free agency. That does not include No. 35 overall pick Johni Broome, whom the Sixers figure to eventually sign with the second-round exception, or Ricky Council IV, whose $2.2 million salary is fully non-guaranteed until Jan. 10.

Even though the Sixers are already well over the cap, they still have business to attend to this offseason. They have a pair of key free agents that they’re hoping to re-sign, and they could have a mid-level exception to spend on another rotation player. So, before free agency officially begins at 6 p.m. ET Monday, here’s an overview of where the Sixers stand financially and what they can do this offseason.

Financial Outlook

With only nine players under contract (along with Edgecombe’s cap hold), the Sixers are nearly $28 million over the $154.6 million salary cap. The main question now is whether they’ll have access to the $14.1 million non-taxpayer mid-level exception or the $5.7 million taxpayer mid-level exception.

If the Sixers spend anything above the taxpayer MLE, that will hard-cap them at the $195.9 million first apron. They would not be allowed to exceed that threshold under any circumstance. If they spend only the taxpayer MLE, they’d be hard-capped at the $207.8 million second apron.

Realistically, the Sixers aren’t going to use the non-taxpayer MLE unless they dump significant salary elsewhere. Doing so would put them at $193.9 million in salary if they don’t waive Council or $191.7 million if they do. They wouldn’t even be able to fill out their roster with veteran-minimum contracts ($2.3 million each) without crossing the first apron, which they wouldn’t be allowed to do.

The Sixers are far more likely to use the taxpayer MLE, which comes with the added benefit of hard-capping them at the second apron. Given the dearth of cap space around the league, that should still be enough money to help them land an impact rotation player. They’d also avoid the punishing restrictions that teams face when they cross the second apron, including not being able to aggregate contracts in trades and having their first-round draft pick seven years in the future becoming ineligible to be traded.

However, not having access to the non-taxpayer MLE could prove costly when it comes to retaining one of their two key free agents.

Key Free Agents

Quentin Grimes and Guerschon Yabusele are the Sixers’ top two free agents. The Sixers have repeatedly expressed confidence in their ability to re-sign Grimes, but keeping Yabusele could be far more complicated.

Grimes is a restricted free agent, which means the Sixers have the right to match any offer sheet that he signs with another team. They also have full Bird rights on him, so they can re-sign him to anything up to a max contract. He’s reportedly “looking for a contract that averages $25 million per season,” according to Tony Jones of The Athletic, but the cap-space environment around the league could make it challenging for him to get that.

The Brooklyn Nets are currently the only team that could offer Grimes more than the non-taxpayer mid-level exception. However, they seem far more likely to use that cap space to absorb contracts in trades. That might leave Grimes without significant leverage in negotiations, although he could always accept his one-year, $8.7 million qualifying offer to become an unrestricted free agent in 2026 instead.

Yabusele is the far bigger concern from the Sixers’ perspective. They only have non-Bird rights him, which means they can’t offer him a starting salary higher than 120% of a veteran-minimum contract unless they sign him with another salary-cap exception. Unless his free-agent market is far less robust than expected, the Sixers will likely need to use the taxpayer MLE to re-sign him, and even that might not be enough.

HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto reported Monday that the San Antonio Spurs “are among several teams expected to have interest in Yabusele,” which longtime NBA insider Marc Stein later confirmed. As Scotto noted, Yabusele played with Spurs star big man Victor Wembanyama on the French national team in the 2024 Paris Olympics, which is what put him back on the NBA radar in the first place.

The Spurs have the full non-taxpayer MLE to offer this summer, so they could easily outbid the Sixers for Yabusele if so desired. The chance to play for an up-and-coming Spurs team alongside a generational prospect (and fellow countryman) like Wembanyama could be more appealing than staying in Philadelphia, particularly given the miserable season that Yabusele just endured with the Sixers.

Beyond Grimes and Yabusele, the Sixers might also pursue a reunion with Gordon even though he turned down his player option. ESPN reported that “a return to the 76ers is still possible,” which suggests this could have been a financially driven move.

Had Gordon opted in, he would have earned slightly less than $3.5 million this year. Now that he opted out, his minimum salary is north of $3.6 million, so he guaranteed himself at least a $165,000 raise as long as he finds some team that’s willing to sign him. And if the Sixers do re-sign him to a one-year, veteran-minimum contract, he’ll count as only $2.3 million against the cap instead of $3.5 million. This might be the rare win-win for everyone.

The new league year officially begins at 6 p.m. ET on Monday, June 30, so it won’t be long before we begin to get answers to the Sixers’ most pressing remaining offseason questions. Although they can’t purchase more fortune on the health front, they could at least insulate themselves better against the disaster scenario that unfolded last year.

Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac and salary-cap information via RealGM. All odds via FanDuel Sportsbook.

Follow Bryan on Bluesky.