Two years ago, the Los Angeles Lakers opted not to re-sign Alex Caruso, a key reserve on their 2019-20 championship team, for luxury-tax reasons. However, that is not the world in which we operate. In a perfect world, the billionaires who own NBA teams would have an unlimited reservoir of money that they’re willing to devote to luxury-tax payments. The Sixers owners should just pay up.” Which, sure.

This is typically where someone rebuts with “I don’t care, it’s not my money. (It wasn’t just to have the NBA cut an eight-figure check to Josh Harris.) By pushing back the clock on the repeater tax by a year, they maximized their ability to re-sign their free agents this offseason without going into unprecedented tax territory. That’s among the reasons why the Sixers were motivated to get under the tax line this season. But the cost of doing so could become prohibitively expensive depending on their respective asking prices. Everyone’s favorite topic.) They do have Bird rights on Milton, McDaniels and Reed and Early Bird rights on Niang, which means they can exceed the salary cap to re-sign any/all of them. If the Sixers do re-sign Harden, they’ll likely be bumping up against the projected $162 million luxury-tax threshold. Regardless of what Harden decides to do, it would thus behoove them to operate as an over-the-cap team using their remaining free agents’ cap holds. Next year’s salary cap is currently projected to be $134 million.Įven if Harden walks, the Sixers would have only minimal cap space if they renounced the rest of their free agents (Shake Milton, Georges Niang, Jalen McDaniels and Paul Reed), along with the $5.9 million room mid-level exception. ($4.3 million) and Montrezl Harrell ($2.8 million) pick up their respective player options for next season, that would push the total payroll to roughly $124 million. The Sixers already have $117.1 million of salary on their books for next season with only seven players under contract.

If anything, the gap between them and the other top title contenders is only likely to widen after this season, regardless of what Harden decides to do this summer.

That’s why, as aggravating as this year’s Sixers might be at times, you should try to enjoy these next few months. Harden’s future might not be the only painful decision that the Sixers have to confront this offseason. This season is likely to end with another second-round playoff exit (at best), which would raise some existential questions about the long-term viability of this core. Between recent losses to the Boston Celtics, Miami Heat and Dallas Mavericks and the steady stream of rumors suggesting James Harden might leave this summer to sign with the Houston Rockets in free agency, it’s hard to blame any fan for feeling frustrated. Angst seems to be at an all-time high on Sixers Twitter as of late.

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