There’s a way for the Philadelphia 76ers to add LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard, and still pay J.J. Redick a pretty penny. Let’s dive in and take a capologist’s look at how.
With all the rumors flying about the Philadelphia 76ers pursuing LeBron James or chasing Kawhi Leonard, it seems like our own free agents like J.J. Redick are the forgotten men.
However, Redick shouldn’t be an afterthought in our offseason plans, even if he does end up being the last one signed. There’s a way that the Sixers could acquire both stars, and then still pay Redick well.
However, everything needs to be done carefully, and in the right order. Let’s look at the four transactions that have to occur, and then take one last look at the roster.
Domino 1: Clearing space
The first thing we need to is create a little bit of space to fit a full max contract in under the cap. Step 1.1 is to renounce the rights to all our free agents (sorry Amir Johnson, Marco Belinelli, Ersan Ilyasova, and J.J. Redick. We’re star-hunting).
Note that this does NOT mean that we cannot re-sign any of these players, unlike what some would lead you to believe. It does mean we have no form of Bird Rights on these players, but there are other salary exception that can and will be used in this exercise.
Additionally, some have postulated that the Philadelphia 76ers need to account for Zhaire Smith and Landry Shamet‘s contracts, and clear an extra $4.1 million as a result before signing someone to a max. However, as you will see, I have no intention of keeping them on the team, so this is not necessary for our purposes.
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Currently the Sixers are slotted to have roughly $30.4 million in cap space, and they need about $35 million to sign LeBron to a max. The path to clearing the last bit of space is easy: trade Jerryd Bayless.
Removing his salary from the 76ers’ payroll (and taking nothing back) will leave the team with roughly $39.0 million in space — more than enough to sign a max player.
Bayless is on an expiring contract, and not a huge one. He doesn’t really have much trade value, but a rebuilding team would likely be willing to take him on for a few minor assets.
Some teams like the Suns, Bulls, or Magic have a decent amount of cap space (and no great point guards), but I would guess the Brooklyn Nets are the most likely destination. They have shown a willingness to take on salaries in return for assets in the past, in deals such as that for DeMarre Carroll.
They Nets can’t really use Bayless (they have Jeremy Lin, Spencer Dinwiddie, and D’Angelo Russell who all play the point), but they could take him for picks. For the sake of argument, let’s say they package Bayless with the two second-round picks received from Detroit in the Khyri Thomas trade (it is still unclear exactly what the picks are as of now).
It might seem weird to trade away a player AND picks and get nothing in return except cap space (isn’t that what the Kings did in the Stauskas trade that we loved so much?), but it’s a little different when you’re chasing LeBron James instead of Rajon Rondo.
To sum it up, I’m very okay with trading Jerryd Bayless and the assets we got in return for the 38th pick in the draft for a shot at signing the King, and that’s exactly what we should do next.