How the Sixers' Frugality Turned Their Bench Into an Achilles' Heel

During an era in which depth is more important than ever, the Sixers headed into March ranked 28th leaguewide in bench scoring this season.

As is tradition with most things Sixers these days, their cost-cutting ways contributed directly to that.

Quentin Grimes is averaging 12.6 points per game mostly in a reserve role, but he's been their only semi-consistent presence off the bench. Trendon Watford and Jabari Walker have shown flashes at times, but there's a reason why they were available for a minimum contract and a two-way deal this past offseason, respectively.

That lack of bench production has cost the Sixers in recent games without Joel Embiid and Paul George. A more well-balanced roster would be able to better compensate for the absence of those two stars by having deeper bench players temporarily scale up.

The Celtics smashed the Sixers on Sunday due to Neemias Queta, who had a career night with 27 points and 17 rebounds against the Embiid-less Sixers. The Celtics took Queta in the second round of the 2021 draft. They've also been starting 2021 undrafted free agent Sam Hauser and 2024 No. 30 overall pick Baylor Scheierman in recent games and haven't missed a beat without Jayson Tatum.

The Sixers have nailed a number of moves on the margins in recent years, from drafting Jared McCain ahead of Dalton Knecht in 2024 and signing Kelly Oubre Jr. and Guerschon Yabusele on minimum contracts to landing Walker and Dominick Barlow on two-way deals this past offseason. However, they've continually made unnecessary sacrifices around the edges to ensure they can get under the luxury-tax line by the end of the season.

In doing so, they're wasting whatever is left of Embiid's prime.

The KJ Martin dump

The Sixers presumably didn't go into the 2024-25 season with the intention of ducking the tax. But once injuries sent their season off the rails, they pivoted at the trade deadline by using two second-round picks to salary-dump KJ Martin.

This still might be their most egregious move to date.

Martin's contract was fully non-guaranteed in 2025-26 until Jan. 10. He had no bearing on their offseason plans whatsoever. If they needed financial flexibility to re-sign Grimes or Guerschon Yabusele, they could have waived Martin and wouldn't have been left with a dead cap hit whatsoever.

It was a tax dump, plain and simple.

They also could have kept Martin on their roster and explored their trade options with his $8 million expiring contract this past offseason. They instead created an $8 million trade exception by sending him out without taking back any salary, but they didn't touch it at all before it expired in early February.

There was zero on-court justification for that trade. It's already coming back to bite them, too.

One of the picks the Sixers sent out in that deal was a 2027 second-rounder from the Milwaukee Bucks. If the Bucks do finally trade Giannis Antetokounmpo this offseason, there's a real chance that pick winds up being high in the second round. That could have similar value to a late first-rounder, especially since second-round picks don't have a fixed or guaranteed salary.

Second-round picks are also valuable trade currency. The New York Knicks just acquired Jose Alvarado for two second-round picks at this year's trade deadline. The Los Angeles Lakers got Dorian Finney-Smith and Shake Milton for D'Angelo Russell, Maxwell Lewis and three second-rounders last year, while the Golden State Warriors flipped De'Anthony Melton (who was out with a torn ACL) and three second-round picks for Dennis Schröder and a second-rounder.

Instead of spending those two second-round picks either on prospects or as a way to improve their roster via trade, the Sixers used them to offload an effectively expiring contract so they could duck the tax. There was zero on-court justification for this move, and it cost them a chance to use a creative contract to bolster their bench.

The Jared McCain trade

Thanks to the $5.9 million tax credit that they received for George's suspension, the Sixers headed into this year's trade deadline sitting only $1.3 million above the luxury tax. It wasn't a question of if they would duck it again; it was only a question of how, especially since there didn't seem to be an easy way for them to do so.

They answered that question by trading Jared McCain to the Oklahoma City Thunder for a 2026 first-round pick (likely via the Houston Rockets) and three future second-rounders. Afterward, team president Daryl Morey told reporters that he was "quite confident" the Sixers sold high on McCain.

That wasn't the only reason why the Sixers made that move, though. Just like with Martin, that was also a tax dump, albeit one that netted assets this time instead of burned through even more.

After the deadline, Morey claimed that to get Dominick Barlow "on a good, long-term deal because of the first apron, we had to do moves to create that opportunity." Unfortunately, that explanation doesn't hold up based on the contract Barlow wound up signing.

Since Barlow got only a two-year, $6.8 million deal, the Sixers could have signed him via the taxpayer mid-level exception rather than the larger non-taxpayer MLE. Using the taxpayer MLE would hard-cap them at the second apron—which they are nowhere near, even after filling out the remainder of their roster—while using the non-taxpayer MLE would hard-cap them at the first apron.

Morey did say the Sixers were hoping to sign Barlow to an even longer contract, which would have necessitated the use of the non-taxpayer MLE. (Contracts signed via the taxpayer MLE can be only two years at most.) That seems like the type of thing they should have had hammered out before finalizing the McCain trade, though.

Luckily, after dumping McCain and Eric Gordon, signing Barlow to his new deal and signing both Cam Payne and Jabari Walker to standard contracts, the Sixers are now less than $165,000 below the tax line. What a happy coincidence!

Did they get cheap in the draft, too?

The Sixers' frugality might not be limited to tax ducks at the trade deadline.

In mid-February, PHLY Sports' Kyle Neubeck said the Sixers could have taken Sacramento Kings center Maxime Raynaud in the second round of this past year's draft, but "a contractual thing" contributed to them taking Johni Broome at No. 35 instead.

Although Broome was a high second-round pick, he settled for a four-year contract starting at the minimum for a player with zero years of NBA experience. The second-round exception, which the Sixers used to sign Broome, allows teams to offer a four-year contract starting at the minimum salary for a third-year player.

The difference in salary between someone with zero years of NBA experience and two years this season is roughly $1 million.

Raynaud, the No. 42 overall pick, settled for a three-year deal with the Kings starting at the minimum for players with zero years of NBA experience. The Kings also signed him with the second-round exception, but since they only signed him to a three-year deal, they couldn't offer him more than the minimum salary for a second-year player. That isn't quite as stark of a difference, although it is roughly $775,000.

If Raynaud wound up settling for the same as Broome, perhaps a contractual issue isn't the only reason why he didn't end up in Philadelphia? Then again, he might have been shooting higher had he gone earlier in the second round.

Either way, that decision hasn't aged well for the Sixers.

Raynaud is one of the few bright spots for the Kings this year. He's averaging 10.3 points and 7.0 rebounds in only 24.2 minutes per game while shooting 55.2% from the field. Broome has played a total of 55 minutes with the Sixers this season and is now likely out for the rest of the year due to a surprise meniscus tear.

One can only hope that the decision to bypass Raynaud for Broome was not solely contractually based. As PHLY's Derek Bodner said, "Who cares if you get them on the deal that you want if they can't play basketball?"

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Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac and salary-cap information via RealGM.

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