Thanks to the assets they acquired in the James Harden deal earlier this season, the Sixers are now poised to be power players on the NBA trade market. They have more than $80 million in expiring contracts to dangle, along with as many as three first-round picks and six second-rounders.
The Sixers have already been linked with Chicago Bulls guard Zach LaVine, and they figure to be connected with plenty of other players between now and the Feb. 8 trade deadline. While they could have more than $55 million in salary-cap space this offseason, team president Daryl Morey has already said that he’d prefer to use that cap space early to give the Sixers both “front-end flexibility” and “back-end flexibility” to re-sign anyone on an expiring contract whom they acquire.