Darius Bazley’s 10-day contract with the Sixers expired Friday, meaning the Sixers have two spots open again at the moment. With the March 1 playoff eligibility deadline for ruled out players just passing, the buyout market is now set as well.
Before you slot your favorite buyout target and/or Ricky Council IV into one of these two open spots, it’s worth keeping in mind why the Sixers might space out their moves during the rest of the regular season.
Thanks to their maneuvers of February 8 NBA trade deadline, the Sixers were about $2.1 million below the luxury tax threshold after signing Kyle Lowry to a $2.8 million contract for the remainder of the season shortly before the All-Star break. Bazley’s 10-day contract cost them about $120,000, leaving them about $1.975 million under the tax threshold at the moment.
However, the Sixers didn’t spend a second-round pick to pass up Danuel House Jr. just to go back to taxes after the trade deadline. If they don’t collect the tax this year, they will ensure they are not subject to the repeat offender tax rate – which peaked in the new collective agreement – until 2027-2028 at the earliest.
Minimum contract values for the remainder of the season decrease by approximately $11,600 per day between now and the end of the season. If the Sixers signed such a deal on Monday, March 4, it would cost them nearly $490,000. If they wait until the following Monday, it would only be about $405,000.
The Sixers can only play two weeks at a time with just 13 players on standard contracts (not counting players on two-way contracts). They will have to sign someone else to either a 10-day contract or a deal for the remainder of the season by March 14. But if they’re nearly $2 million under the tax threshold and a contract for the rest of the season would have cost them less than $500,000, what’s the problem?
The structure of Buddy Hield’s contract could be the answer.
Hield has a base salary of about $18.6 million, but he has an additional $3.5 million in incentives in his contract this year. Nearly $1.3 million is considered “winnable” – including advancing to the second round of the playoffs and being one of the league leaders in three-way field goals points – while another $2.2 million is unlikely to be won.
Earnable incentives are already added to Hield’s cap hit, bringing it to a total of $19.8 million. This is the salary used to project how much cap space the Sixers still have under the tax threshold. But the Sixers also have to consider the possibility of Hield achieving some of his unlikely rewards, including an appearance in the Conference Finals or Conference Finals. NBA Finals.
With Joel Embiid I always hope to come back At some point this season, the Sixers can’t rule out making a deep playoff run. That would net them about $750,000 in additional incentives for Hield, according to sources familiar with the details of his contract. He already has $1.3 million in incentives that are virtually unattainable, but he has another one based on filming that could cost nearly $380,000 more.
To ensure they stay below the tax threshold this year, the Sixers could consider every possible incentive Hield has left in his contract. In total, that would be about $1.1 million. That means they wouldn’t want to add more than about $900,000 in salary for the remainder of the season when filling their final two roster spots.
The Sixers also still have most of their mid-level exceptions, so they aren’t limited to handing out only minimum salary contracts. But because of Hield’s incentives, they probably won’t want to risk going much higher (if at all). Having their MLE, however, gives them another advantage over other possible buyout destinations.
Teams that sign players using the minimum salary exception can only offer deals for up to two years. The same goes for teams benefiting from the mid-level taxpayer exception (which constitutes a change in the new collective agreement, down compared to the three years of the previous one). But teams with the non-taxpayer MLE can offer deals lasting up to four years.
Now wait, you might ask. Wouldn’t signing a multi-year contract with someone interfere with the Cap Space plan this offseason? And the answer is… it depends.
If the Sixers signed someone to a multi-year contract with a guaranteed salary beyond this season (unlikely), it would reduce their projected cap space this summer. But if they signed someone to a multi-year contract with no guaranteed money beyond this season (for example, a two-way player who outstays his rookie contract), they could give themselves an additional option (the Daryl Morey’s favorite word).
Paul Hudrick of the Liberty Ballers recently presented a convincing case that’s why Ricky Council IV deserves one of these open spots. You will not find any contrary arguments here. But the Sixers’ proximity to the tax line could cause them to wait for the board’s conversion until the end of the regular season. As long as they do so by April 14, he will be eligible to make the playoffs.
While it would be great to see Council get rewarded for the way he has played lately, the Sixers have no financial incentive to do so at the moment. In fact, the uncertainty surrounding some of Hield’s incentives might be the main reason they’re holding off for the moment.
Unless otherwise stated, all statistics via NBA.com, PBPStats, Clean the glass Or Basketball reference. All salary information via Spotrac Or RealGM.
