If the Sixers are thinking of trading the No. 3 overall pick, the player-option deadline could complicate those plans.
Ever since the Sixers won the No. 3 overall pick in the 2025 NBA draft, we’ve been subjected to a steady stream of rumors about what they might do with it. Will they stand pat and take Ace Bailey or V.J. Edgecombe? Will they look to package that pick with Paul George’s contract to bring in another star? Will they consider trading down and acquiring additional assets while still bringing in a high-upside rookie? At the moment, no one knows.
If the Sixers do entertain trading down, though, the timing of the player-option deadline could complicate some of those conversations.
Kelly Oubre Jr. ($8.4 million), Andre Drummond ($5.0 million) and Eric Gordon ($3.5 million) all have player options for the 2025-26 season. Each one of them has until June 29—four days after the first round of the 2025 draft—to decide whether to pick up those options and return next season or decline them to become unrestricted free agents.
Team president Daryl Morey said on The Rights to Ricky Sanchez in early May that all three were “likely to come back,” and Jake Fischer of The Stein Line reported that the Sixers expect them to pick up their respective player options. However, none of them have incentive to do so until after the draft is over. In fact, it would greatly behoove them to wait.
If any of Oubre, Drummond or Gordon do officially opt in ahead of the draft, they’ll immediately become trade-eligible. If they wait until after the draft, Morey and Co. won’t be able to package them with the No. 3 pick in a draft-night trade. Unless any of them are looking for a fresh start elsewhere, there’s zero upside to opting in ahead of the draft.
Without the salaries of Oubre, Drummond and Gordon to dangle, the Sixers are largely bereft of tradable contracts. They can’t include Quentin Grimes in a sign-and-trade on draft night since other teams aren’t legally allowed to begin negotiating with him until June 30. Even if they could, base-year-compensation rules would complicate trade talks, as Grimes would only count as 50 percent of his new contract for his outgoing salary.
The Sixers could pick up their team options on Lonnie Walker IV ($2.9 million) or Jared Butler ($2.3 million) or guarantee Ricky Council IV’s $2.2 million salary if they need some small contracts for salary-matching purposes. Otherwise, they’re basically down to their Big Three, all of whom are earning at least $37.9 million next season, and Jared McCain ($4.2 million). Unless they’re willing to part ways with George, Joel Embiid or Tyrese Maxey, they’d likely struggle to cobble together enough salary to acquire someone in the $15-20 million range.
There is one way the Sixers could try to get around that, though. If they sign whomever they select at No. 3, that player would become trade-eligible 30 days later. If they give him the full 120 percent of his rookie-scale amount, he’d have an $11.1 million cap hit next season and would count for that amount as outgoing salary.
However, unsigned draft picks count as $0 for salary-matching purposes. So, if the Sixers were looking to trade down, they could use the salary of the No. 3 overall pick as their main outgoing salary as long as the other team didn’t sign their pick before trading him. As a purely hypothetical example, something like the No. 3 pick ($11.1 million) plus Walker ($2.9 million) for Herb Jones ($13.9 million) and the No. 7 pick would be legal as long as the New Orleans Pelicans didn’t sign whomever they selected before trading him.
If Oubre, Drummond and/or Gordon did decide to opt in ahead of the draft, the Sixers could have upward of $16 million in expiring contracts to dangle along with the No. 3 pick. They’d have a lot more flexibility to reel in another significant contract, although they’d still have to ensure that they didn’t take back more salary than they sent out. (Doing so would hard-cap them at the first apron.)
Given those salary-matching constraints, any trade involving the No. 3 pick might only include draft picks coming back in return. The Washington Wizards could offer the Nos. 6 and 18 picks for No. 3, for instance, or the Utah Jazz could offer Nos. 5 and 21. The Brooklyn Nets could offer some combination of Nos. 8, 19, 26 and 27 this year, the Sixers’ 2028 first-round pick back and/or other future draft considerations as well.
Either way, the Sixers should have options at their disposal if they’re open to trading down. They just might not be able to flip the No. 3 pick for someone in the $15-20 million range unless Oubre, Drummond or Gordon pick up their player options ahead of the draft.
Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Salary Swish and salary-cap information via RealGM.
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