Because of all these expiring contracts, the 76ers can go in any direction. They can go the massive cap space route, they can still choose to operate over the luxury tax, or they could go somewhere in between. The first is perhaps the most likely.
Expiring contracts do not automatically mean cap space – free agents continue to count against the cap unless expressly renounced (or until they sign with another NBA team), and any such renouncement removes their Bird rights. Players that the Sixers intend to keep, then, will eat into that space, and the most obvious of those is Tyrese Maxey, whose cap hold of $13,031,760 should be assumed.
This still potentially leaves a hefty amount of room, once Nic Batum, Robert Covington, Buddy Hield and Mike Scott (still with a $9,510,165 cap hold long after leaving the team) are renounced. For each player they will want to keep, then, the cap space gets smaller, something particularly relevant in the case of De’Anthony Melton.
Nonetheless, in a market short of competitors, the 76ers should be expected to be significant free agent players, and perhaps the significant free agent players.
