At this point, NBA free agency has been ongoing for five weeks. Not only has prized restricted free agent Quentin Grimes not yet re-signed with the Sixers, but there has been zero reported movement. Restricted free agency can be a devastating process for players, and in a market with little to no money being spent it has crushed Grimes' chances of getting the sort of contract he covets.
And so, the waiting game continues with the Sixers' lone remaining piece of roster construction business. Has anything changed on the Grimes front? Discussing that and much more as we kick off another week with 5 Sixers thoughts:
Where do things stand with Grimes?
In a few words: the same place they did when free agency began. Grimes has no inclination to accept offers that are not commensurate with his production, youth and upward mobility. The Sixers have no inclination to offer anything close to that, because there is no money out there for Grimes elsewhere.
Grimes can keep on waiting things out, but these two facts will not change:
1) The only team with the financial capacity to make him a significant offer sheet is the Brooklyn Nets, who now have 17 players under contract and have gone over a month without signaling any semblance of interest in Grimes or the other outstanding restricted free agents.
2) The Sixers have the right to match any offer sheet Grimes inks with another team, and nobody other than Brooklyn has the ability to sign him to one that they would even consider not matching.
Grimes could take the qualifying offer, betting on himself in the most bold of ways in hopes of cashing in next summer. But for a player with limited earnings -- about $11 million across four NBA seasons -- and three separate trades in his young career, such an option is not advisable. Players almost never take the qualifying offer; the ones who do rarely end up earning the kind of money they are hoping for in the following offseason.
Unless Grimes is genuinely willing to make that sort of gamble -- an especially risky idea given he is the fourth-most important guard on the Sixers' roster from a long-term perspective -- the only outcome here is the 25-year-old signing a deal to return to Philadelphia that is clearly below his likely value. Perhaps a reasonable compromise would be a three-year deal rather than one lasting for four years. In that case, Grimes could theoretically return to free agency with no restricted tag when he is still just 28 years old.
This situation is not exclusive to Grimes; three other high-profile restricted free agents are in identical positions. One of them is in an even more tense situation...
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A friendly reminder about Jonathan Kuminga
The Golden State Warriors have not been able to do anything in over a month because their eventual course of action with Kuminga, the former lottery pick now in restricted free agency, will determine their options. The buzz is that they will sign Al Horford and old friend De'Anthony Melton eventually. But they still only have nine players on their team. Will they re-sign Kuminga and then build out the remainder of their roster? At this point, a sign-and-trade to end a tenuous relationship feels more likely, with the Sacramento Kings and Phoenix Suns reportedly in pursuit of the athletic 6-foot-8 forward.
Given Kuminga's clear desire to get out of Golden State and his position, many have wondered about the concept of a double sign-and-trade that brings Kuminga to Philadelphia and sends Grimes to the Warriors. Both players might be perceived as superior fits elsewhere -- Grimes because of his versatile role-playing ability and Kuminga because of his size where the Sixers lack it.
Without even debating the merits of such a deal as if the Sixers could pull it off, it is worth noting that they cannot. Any team acquiring a player via sign-and-trade is immediately hard-capped at the first apron; in this case both the Sixers and Warriors would be barred from surpassing that threshold for the remainder of the league year.
The Sixers are currently about $10 million below the first apron. One of their two paths to affording Kuminga while having enough breathing room below the first apron is dumping Kelly Oubre Jr. and Andre Drummond for no returning salary -- this could cost the Sixers assets depending on how the league values Oubre. Even then, the Sixers would have to get Kuminga on board signing a deal that is not as expensive as the ones Sacramento and Phoenix are reportedly offering. The Sixers' other path: trading one of their three players on max contracts -- Joel Embiid, Paul George and Tyrese Maxey -- and taking back considerably less salary in return.
Neither situation feels remotely realistic.
Other triggers of a first apron hard cap
When the Sixers decided to build a three-star cap sheet in this era of hard caps and aprons, it was a bet that they could routinely have enough star power to bypass the roster-building amenities that come with staying below the first apron. The Sixers' financial commitments are not significant enough to be in the second apron ballpark year after year, and that would be much more prohibitive.
With their three max contracts on the books, the Sixers will likely never be able to build a coherent, championship-caliber roster with the depth required to win at the highest levels while staying beneath the first apron. So, what does that actually prevent the Sixers from doing? Some of the key mechanisms a team cannot utilize if it exceeds the first apron in a given year:
• Acquiring players via sign-and-trade.
• Taking back more salary than sending out in any trade.
• Using the non-taxpayer's mid-level exception.
• Using the bi-annual exception.
• Using a trade exception created in the prior season.
• Signing a buyout player whose previous salary exceeded the non-taxpayer's mid-level exception.
These are not all crushing blows to team-building processes, but they can be major roadblocks. When the Sixers went all-in on the three-star model, they incurred the collateral damage of not being able to perform any of these moves for the foreseeable future. If those stars perform at the level the team expected them to, the drawbacks will be worth it.
An important two-way rule to know
Never could an encyclopedic understanding of rules regarding two-way contracts have been more valuable on a beat than it was covering the Sixers last year. They had Justin Edwards rise from developmental piece to long-term rotation player and traded for Jared Butler shortly before converting Butler and Edwards to standard deals.
In 2025-26, the Sixers might have the strongest group of two-way players in the NBA. The entire league seemed stunned when Jabari Walker had to sign a two-way deal, and soon after adding Walker the Sixers signed Dominick Barlow, another player with three years of legitimate NBA experience. But an obscure rule which gave the Sixers trouble last winter could now be relevant again.
Technically, players inked to two-way deals before the season can be active for up to 50 games in the regular season (they are not eligible to participate in postseason play). In theory, a team can get up to 150 appearances from their crop of two-way talent. The Sixers clearly added Walker and Barlow intent on having players significant NBA experience around to give them rotation minutes when needed. Walker is a particularly strong get; players with his combination of experience and production in the NBA are almost never attainable on two-way deals. Barlow is certainly capable of playing for the Sixers as well. Sallis figures to be the long-term developmental project of the trio, though it is worth noting that the same would have been said about Edwards at this time a year ago.
However, teams can only have a two-wayplayer active for a game 90 times during any period in which their standard roster is not at its full capacity of 15 players.And after waiving Ricky Council IV, the Sixers appear primed to enter the season with 14 players on their standard roster at the beginning of the season rather than the maximum 15. If that indeed comes to fruition, the Sixers' utilization of Walker, Barlow and Sallis could be limited.
The conversions of Edwards and Butler last year were rushed. Butler had five games of two-way eligibility left at the time of his conversion and Edwards had 18. Because the Sixers were about to hit 90 games of two-way activity with fewer than 15 players on their roster, those conversions had to happen early.
If Walker and Barlow both pop early, the Sixers will have some difficulty managing their availability in the weeks leading up to the trade deadline in early February. The true victim of this numbers game will likely be Sallis. If the Sixers have to treasure each and every two-way activation, it will be much harder to justify suiting up the rookie when there is almost no existing path to rotation minutes for him.
Joel Embiid comes to Citizens Bank Park
Zack Wheeler vs. Tarik Skubal on Saturday was appointment viewing. The battle of two perennial Cy Young candidates at Citizens Bank was such a draw that Embiid, a real baseball fan these days, came to the ballpark to watch. Embiid was seen chatting with Tigers starter Jack Flaherty before the game.
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Flaherty, believe it or not, has been a vocal fan and supporter of Embiid on social media for years. Flaherty is also friends with one of Embiid's former teammates, KJ Martin, a fellow Southern California native.