Report: Sixers Plan to Convert Barlow, Walker to Standard Contracts 'At Some Point'

While the Sixers were nowhere near as active in free agency this past offseason as they were in 2024, they absolutely cooked on the two-way market. Dominick Barlow has started in 29 of their 42 games to date, while Jabari Walker has been a key rotation piece off the bench.

Walker can only be active for eight more games before the Sixers have to decide whether to convert him to a standard contract or release him, according to Spotrac's two-way tracker, while Barlow has 18 remaining games. If the Sixers didn't convert them to a standard contract by the final day of the regular season, they wouldn't be eligible to participate in the postseason (assuming the Sixers get that far).

Luckily, that doesn't appear to be in the cards for either player. Longtime NBA insider Marc Stein that "barring some unforeseen change," the Sixers expect to convert both Barlow and Walker to standard deals "at some point during the regular season."

They might have to make that decision sooner than later.

The Under-15 Game limit will force the Sixers' hand

As we noted in mid-December, the NBA prohibits teams from having two-way players active for more than 90 total games if they have fewer than 15 players signed to standard contracts. The Sixers entered the season with an open roster spot and still have yet to fill it, so they're now down to only four remaining Under-15 Games, according to Keith Smith of Spotrac.

Just two games left for the Philadelphia 76ers where both Dominick Barlow and Jabari Walker can be active for the same NBA game. (Without PHI making a roster move.) The Sixers have only four total under-15 games remaining.

Walker has only eight games of NBA eligibility left.
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) January 21, 2026

The Sixers can get around that in a few different ways. If they convert Walker or Barlow from a two-way deal to a standard contract, they would no longer have an open roster spot, so they wouldn't have to worry about Under-15 Games unless (until?) they opened another one. Conversely, if they want to maintain roster flexibility leading up to the Feb. 5 NBA trade deadline, they could sign someone to a 10-day contract instead.

The Sixers have eight games left until the trade deadline. If they sign someone on Saturday, the 10-day contract would span six of them. As long as they didn't create another open roster spot, that single 10-day contract would get them to the day of the trade deadline before they ran out of Under-15 Games. (In other words: Expect them to sign someone to a 10-day contract on Saturday.)

Why haven't they already signed someone to a 10-day deal with this looming Under-15 Game countdown in mind, you might wonder? Well, 10-day deals cost roughly $132,000, and the Sixers are already $7 million over the luxury-tax line. Make of that what you will, particularly in the context of their trade deadline moves in recent years.

The next two weeks might therefore be a juggling act for Nick Nurse, Daryl Morey and the Sixers' front office. Nurse will want Barlow and Walker available in every game to maximize their chances of winning. Morey and Co. likely want to maintain their optionality for the trade deadline, so they might prefer to wait until after the deadline to convert Walker and/or Barlow. They can bridge that gap by signing someone to a 10-day contract, but that will add to their luxury-tax bill, which means they'd have to dump even more salary at the deadline to get below the $187.9 million tax line.

On the bright side, at least we're finally beginning to get clarity on the Sixers' trade deadline plans?

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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