Sixers sign Igor Milicic Jr. and Izan Almanza to Exhibit 10 contracts

Post-draft, the Sixers continued their offseason housekeeping to build out additional parts of the developmental program.

After a ton of speculation, the Philadelphia 76ers made no draft-day trades, sticking and picking VJ Edgecombe and Johni Broome with the 3rd and 35th overall picks. Of course, the draft is just the beginning of offseason moves. The Sixers quickly signed Wake Forest guard Hunter Sallis to a two-way contract, and then signed a pair of players to Exhibit 10 contracts.

As your requisite reminder of what Exhibit 10 deals are, they are non-guaranteed, one-year minimum contracts, where players can receive up to a $75,000 bonus if they join the team’s G League affiliate and spend at least 60 days there after being waived. Basically, the Sixers would like to see Milicic and Almansa on the Delaware Blue Coats in the fall, and this provides the players with some additional financial incentive to go that route. So who are these guys?

The 22-year-old Milicic Jr. was born in Croatia and also has Polish citizenship, playing for Poland’s national team in Eurobasket qualification a few years back. He played professional basketball in Germany as a teenager before opting to play college basketball in America. He spent one season at Virginia and two years at Charlotte, before again transferring and playing for the Tennessee Volunteers last season. Standing 6-foot-10, Milicic started 37 games for the Volunteers, averaging 9.4 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 1.9 assists. He shot 31.4 percent from three last season, and 34.5 percent overall for his collegiate career.

Another foreign-born prospect, Almansa is a couple years younger at 20 years of age. Born in Spain, he previously spent a year with Real Madrid’s reserve team as a teenager. He spent the 2023-24 season with G League Ignite, before playing for the Perth Wildcats in Australia’s national league last season. The 6-foot-10 forward played 33 games for Perth, averaging 6.9 points and 3.9 rebounds, shooting 33 percent from three. He only shot 20 percent on limited attempts from behind the arc the prior season in the G League, so that would not appear to be a significant part of his game.

The biggest hole on the Sixers roster is at the forward position, and it was not something they addressed in the draft, but they look to be focused on possibly finding a long-shot diamond in the rough with these Exhibit 10 deals. It’s a similar theme with one additional Summer League announcement made late last night.

Thomas will join what should be a fun Summer League roster. We’ll see all these guys for the first game against the Spurs on July 10.