Where The Sixers Stand Financially After The Jaylen Brown Trade

Sixers president of basketball operations Mike Gansey didn’t take long to make a big splash, huh? On Wednesday, he agreed to trade Paul George, two first-round picks and two second-round picks to the Boston Celtics for Jaylen Brown, according to multiple reports.

That blockbuster deal explains why the Sixers weren’t willing to top the two-year, roughly $17 million deal that Kelly Oubre Jr. agreed to with the Indiana Pacers.

The Sixers hard-capped themselves at the $209 million first apron by spending a portion of their non-taxpayer mid-level exception on Dean Wade on Tuesday night. That means their payroll cannot exceed that threshold from now through June 30, 2027.

After adding Ariel Hukporti on a reported one-year, $3.4 million deal and flipping George for Brown, here’s a rough estimate as to where the Sixers stand financially.

Agent inflation is common at this time of year, so it wouldn’t be surprising if Wade and/or Hukporti’s final contract terms come in slightly below what’s been reported. But if the reported terms are correct, the Sixers are now roughly $1.4 million below the $200.4 million luxury-tax threshold and $10 million below the first apron.

That cap picture is still fairly fluid, though. Dalen Terry’s $2.6 million contract is fully non-guaranteed until Jan. 10, and given the hard-cap issues that the Sixers could run into, it wouldn’t be surprising if they waive him. They could bring him back on a minimum contract and save $135,000.

Adem Bona’s $2.3 million contract is also non-guaranteed until July 7, although there’s no financial incentive for the Sixers to waive him. His salary is about $150,000 less than a standard veteran-minimum deal, so it would behoove the Sixers financially to keep him around this year.

Jabari Walker is the wild card. Like Terry, he’s set to earn $2.6 million this season. Only $250,000 of his contract is guaranteed through Jan. 10, but waiving him and signing a player to a minimum contract in his place would cost about $115,000 more than just keeping him around.

All of that might sound relatively inconsequential when we’re talking about a $200-plus million budget, but teams have gotten aggressive about pushing boundaries with their hard caps. The reigning champion New York Knicks finished less than $240,000 below their second-apron hard cap this past season, while the Los Angeles Lakers were less than $620,000 below their first-apron hard cap. In 2024-25, the Knicks finished exactly $53,349 below their second-apron hard cap.

It’s unclear whether the Sixers signed Hukporti using a portion of their non-taxpayer MLE or the $5.5 million bi-annual exception. Either way, they should have enough space under the first apron to spend the rest of the non-tax MLE and the bi-annual exception to fill out the rest of their roster.

They could also choose to leave one roster spot open heading into the season as an homage to former team president Daryl Morey as a way to save a few bucks. Veteran-minimum contracts begin to prorate downward on a daily basis once the regular season begins, so they could look to sign someone midseason and save more than $1 million that way.

If anything, the fact that the Sixers pulled this move off in total silence bodes well for the Gansey era.

We’ll see what else he has up his sleeve—would LeBron be interested in a farewell tour in the City of Brotherly Love?—but if nothing else, Gansey still has some tools to work with as he looks to round out the rest of this roster.

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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