Unlike last year, the Philadelphia 76ers will not have deep pockets this time around when they enter the offseason and start setting things into motion in free agency. That could be a tough sell for many, especially with the franchise needing to make urgent changes after the wildly disappointing on-court product the squad put out this season.
Having said that, the 76ers are not exactly hapless in the open market, although they will have to make do with re-signing their own impending free agents. One player the team almost certainly desires to keep on the roster is Quentin Grimes, who has quickly become a breakout star for the team since setting foot in Philly before the trade deadline.
Grimes, who is still just 24 years old, has logged 22.2 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 4.3 assists per contest for the 76ers, draining 50 percent of his shots overall and 38.7 percent of his three-point tries. Those are excellent numbers that the 76ers hope would carry on to their upcoming campaigns. Still, him being a part of that is still an uncertainty.
Quentin Grimes may be too expensive for the 76ers to keep in free agency
Given his emergence, Grimes could be in for a huge payday this summer. He is set to enter restricted free agency, meaning that the 76ers do not have sole control over his price tag in the offseason as teams can offer huge bucks and force the front office to match the same.
However, it seems like he won’t be coming cheap by any stretch of the imagination. Spotrac predicts that the young wing could command up to $25 million annually in free agency — a steep value for a player who will most certainly be forced to settle for a reduced role when the stars get healthy.
The 76ers are definitely not a surefire bet to match that kind of offer should it arrive. The front office would be best-served avoiding being in the second apron, which carries a lot of consequences directly affecting roster-building.
Hopefully, Grimes’ camp and the front office can strike a meaningful balance between his admittedly semi-bloated price tag and a figure that would best reflect his probable production under normal circumstances.
After all, the Philadelphia 76ers cannot afford to just let him go, especially after that stroke of genius they managed to pull off when they acquired him for Caleb Martin turned into indubitable gold.