At the 2024 trade deadline, the Sixers traded Danuel House and Jaden Springer in order to dip below the luxury tax line. They took a similar approach in 2025, getting out of tax territory by making deals involving Caleb Martin and KJ Martin.
Philadelphia is operating roughly $7MM above the tax line this season and there has been speculation the team will once again be looking to make cost-cutting moves at the deadline, but star center Joel Embiid suggested on Thursday that he’s hopeful the front office won’t go that route, per Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer (subscription required).
“We’ve been ducking the tax the last couple of years,” Embiid said (Twitter video link via Derek Bodner of PHLY Sports). “So hopefully we keep the same team. I love all of the guys that are in here. I think we got a shot.
“I don’t know what (the front office is) going to do. But I hope that we get a chance to go out there and compete because we got a good group of guys in this locker room, and the vibes are great. … Hopefully we think about improving because we have a chance.”
Expectations were modest for the Sixers this season after they battled a bevy of injuries and won just 24 games in 2024/25. But the club has already exceeded that win total through its first 47 games, with Embiid and Paul George playing more frequently, Tyrese Maxey ascending to a new level of stardom, and lottery pick VJ Edgecombe emerging immediately as a reliable starter. At 26-21, Philadelphia currently holds the No. 6 seed in the Eastern Conference.
The 76ers could move below the luxury tax line by trading either Quentin Grimes ($8.74MM) or Kelly Oubre Jr. ($8.38MM), who are on expiring contracts. However, both players have been important parts of the team’s rotation, and sources tell ESPN’s Tim Bontemps and Brian Windhorst that the team isn’t pursuing a salary-dump deal involving either player.
Philadelphia is reportedly open to trading reserve center Andre Drummond, but moving his $5MM expiring contract wouldn’t be enough to get the club out of the tax. Even dealing Drummond and a second player who is earning the veteran’s minimum (say, Eric Gordon) would offer only a temporary reprieve, since doing so would drop the Sixers to just 12 players on standard contracts. They’d have to get back to the league-mandated minimum of 14 within two weeks, which would put them back into tax territory.
Getting out of the tax would be a financial boon for ownership — besides eliminating a $7.5MM tax bill, it would make the team eligible for an eight-figure payment at season’s end from the league-wide luxury tax pool. But after having spent the last two seasons as a non-taxpayer, the Sixers have successfully reset their repeater clock, so they shouldn’t feel as much urgency as they did in 2024 or 2025 to shed salary.