Financial Side of the Process
The pillars of the process were essentially to accumulate as many bites of the apple as possible with draft picks and roster space and to find a superstar under team friendly financial control. With the selections of Nerlens Noel, Joel Embiid, Jahlil Okafor and Ben Simmons, the Philadelphia 76ers have found 2 cornerstone players. This was the goal all along. After last nights lottery, the team will have 3 more years of potential lottery picks that will have team friendly contracts. At up to $65 million, the Philadelphia 76ers have the most potential cap space available for this upcoming season.
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So what’s the issue, right? Kyle Lowry will command upwards of $35 million annually. The numbers work right? Well, for 2017-2018, yes. But after that, things get ugly with a Lowry signing. Lets start with where the Sixers stand today as far as projected contract commitments for this coming season.
Philadelphia 76ers current financial commitments/projections 2017-2020
| PLAYER | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 |
| Jerryd Bayless | $9,000,000 | $8,575,916 | $0 | $0 |
| Gerald Henderson | $9,000,000 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Ben Simmons | $6,168,840 | $6,434,520 | $8,113,929 | $25,000,000 |
| Joel Embiid | $6,100,266 | $25,000,000 | $25,000,000 | $25,000,000 |
| Jahlil Okafor | $4,995,120 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Nik Stauskas | $3,807,146 | $5,132,033 | $9,000,000 | $9,000,000 |
| Dario Saric | $2,422,560 | $2,526,840 | $3,481,985 | $20,000,000 |
| Justin Anderson | $1,579,440 | $2,516,047 | $3,625,625 | $0 |
| Timothe Luwawu | $1,386,600 | $1,446,360 | $2,529,684 | $3,698,397 |
| Richaun Holmes | $1,014,000 | $1,088,000 | $0 | $0 |
| Robert Covington | $20,000,000 | $15,000,000 | $12,000,000 | $9,000,000 |
| TJ McConnell | $1,014,746 | $1,088,038 | $0 | $0 |
| Shawn Long | $1,312,611 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Alex Poythress | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Furkan Korkmaz | $1,026,300 | $1,072,500 | $1,118,700 | $1,400,000 |
| 2017 pick #3 | $3,952,000 | $4,130,000 | $4,308,000 | $6,000,000 |
| Lakers 2018 | $0 | $4,401,000 | $4,599,000 | $4,797,000 |
| 2018 First round | $1,573,000 | $1,644,000 | $1,715,000 | |
| 2019 First Round | $1,301,000 | $1,301,000 | ||
| 2019 Kings First | $6,000,000 | $6,000,000 | ||
| Salary totals | $72,779,629 | $79,984,254 | $82,721,923 | $112,911,397 |
| Salary Cap | $ 101,000,000 | $ 101,000,000 | $ 101,000,000 | $ 101,000,000 |
| Luxury Tax | $ 121,000,000 | $ 121,000,000 | $ 121,000,000 | $ 121,000,000 |
| Available Space | $ 28,220,371 | $ 21,015,746 | $ 18,278,077 | $ (11,911,397) |
As you can see this is a very rosy picture. But this highlights the flexibility to walk away from any players we do not want to keep moving forward. It is not a true projection of what the cap looks like if we actually want to keep our own players. Robert Covington for example becomes an unrestricted free agent after next season unless we sign him to a long term extension this summer. Covington is expected to command roughly 4 years and 60 million. I’m using the suggested front loaded model proposed by Derek Bodner.
Next summer Joel Embiid will be due for an extension as well, and he is expected to make $25 million annually. Additionally, our trove of future lottery picks will have cap holds of roughly 6 million per. So let’s look at how those two extensions would effect our cap situation.
So we have optionality right?
Absolutely, The Philadelphia 76ers have many options. They could free up more cap space this offseason by releasing Gerald Henderson and trading Jahlil Okafor. That would leave 13 players under contract for this season. This also assumes that Furkan Korkmaz comes over from Europe this year, which is what he wants, but the Philadelphia 76ers front office may disagree.
Next: Sixers Free Agency - The Kyle Lowry Dilemma
Stay tuned for future installments where I will dive into how the Philadelphia 76ers might spend all that money. The key is to keep the longest view in the room and not put the team into Luxury Tax nightmare territory in future years.