Philadelphia 76ers actually have a salary cap problem for the first time in years

While the Philadelphia 76ers were able to pull off a trade for Jimmy Butler, do not count on many more players arriving via the trade route due to the salary cap.

It was a triumphal time at the press conference announcing Jimmy Butler was joining the Philadelphia 76ers as they finally were successful in ‘star-hunting’, . Talking to reporters, there was a comment general manager Elton Brand made that was overlooked at the time, but it is actually very telling of the team’s future strategy.

Brand said he is still looking to improve the roster, but when asked exactly how, this is part of what he said (Italics mine) according to NBC Philadelphia:

"“There’s still work to do. Maybe not trades or anything like that, but we have an open roster spot and we’re definitely going to be evaluating our team.”"

So while everyone is buzzing about trading for Kyle Korver or other players who can shoot, the GM is saying `he is not looking for trades.

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Why? Four words: Jerryd,  Bayless,  Salary, Cap.

When Sam Hinkie was general manager he brought in a lot of bad players (on purpose) but, unlike some NBA teams, he paid them accordingly. The ‘Hinkie Special’ was famous in league front offices. He made players desperate to gain a foothold in the NBA sign a contract that combined very little money with very little guarantee they would get that pittance for very long.

The reason, and Hinkie always had a well-thought reason, was a big part of The Process. The plan was that, once the Sixers got competitive (a time he never exactly explained), they would have oodles of salary cap space to lure big-time free agents to fill out whatever weaknesses the team had. Until then, Hinkie was more than happy to lend a helping hand to other general managers who needed to dump a really bad contract — for a (usually heavy) price.

His successors, Bryan Colangelo, Brett Brown and now Elton Brand, have pretty much subscribed to Hinkie’s thinking. No one, outside of home grown talent like Joel Embiid and the recently traded Robert Covington, has received a long-term deal from the club.

However, unlike the NFL, where unused cap space gets rolled over to the following year, in the NBA a team must use 90 percent of the salary cap by the end of the season. If it does not, the difference is given to the players on the team.

That is why you get things like J.J. Redick making a huge sum of money ($23 million) and reserve center Amir Johnson netting $11 million last year, with the caveat it was only for one year. That meant the Sixers had lots of cap space to pursue big free agents (which they did not get) over the summer.

Even before the Butler trade, the 76ers were actually over the cap (all salary details courtesy of Spotrac.com). Currently, they are over by almost $2.4 million. A big reason was interim GM Brett Brown trading for Wilson Chandler, whose $13 million salary is more than anyone else on the team except Embiid and Butler.

Under NBA rules, if a team is over the cap, it only can trade for players that are close (max 125 percent difference) in salary. Players on minimum contracts and draft picks do not count.

That is why, to make the Butler trade work, the Sixers had Bayless go to the Timberwolves.  Bayless was given a big three-year contract by Colangelo that ends this season. His $8.7 million salary, combined with Covington and Saric, matched Butler and Justin Patton’s salaries.

Now, most Sixers fans are probably not too upset about losing Bayless, who was injured for much of his time in Philly, or played poor enough where Brown put him at the end of the bench.

But now that Bayless has been dealt, all the remaining players with high-paying contracts are part of the rotation. That means if the Sixers trade for someone, they will have to get rid of a current player getting meaningful minutes.

Sixers making $5 million or more on the current roster are Embiid, Butler, Simmons, Redick, Chandler, Markelle Fultz and Mike Muscala. Do Brown and Brand want to get rid of any of these players? Probably not.

Now, the Sixers are still in pretty good shape after this season as, assuming Butler opts out of his contract, they will have over $50 million in cap space as only six players are currently under contract for the 2019-20 season.

The 76ers do have a $2.6 million trade exception to use created from the Butler trade. That means they can trade for someone without having to match salaries if the player is making $2.6 million or less. However, in the NBA salary structure, that is not a lot (for example: Zhaire Smith makes more than that).

The Sixers also have a $4.3 million mid-level exception but that can not be applied to trades. And to repeat, draft picks have no salary value, so the Sixers cannot straight-up trade their unprotected 2021 Miami pick for a player, unless they make $2.6 million or less.

Remember, Marco Belinelli and Ersan Ilaysova were not traded for last year. They came in February as free agents after negotiating buyouts from the Atlanta Hawks and signed veteran minimum contracts with the Sixers. Any team can always sign a player for the league minimum.

With these salary cap realities, Brand stating publicly that he is not look to do anything imminent on the trade front makes a lot more sense.

They are not in Salary Cap Hell like some clubs, but they have new restrictions on their maneuverability they have not had to deal with in years.