The Sixers’ preseason opener was the classic definition of a glass-half-full, glass-half-empty night.
The glass is half full: Jaylen Brown scored 22 points in 15 minutes. VJ Edgecombe couldn’t buy a bucket from deep, but he had 12 points, seven assists and four rebounds in just 20 minutes of action. Even Jabari Walker shined with 11 points and 11 rebounds in 19 minutes coming off the bench.
The glass half empty: The Sixers’ depth at backup center behind Joel Embiid, who already looked shaky with Adem Bona nursing a foot injury, took another blow when Ariel Hukporti went down with a torn Achilles just five minutes into the game.
The Sixers spent part of their semi-annual exception to sign Hukporti to a one-year, $3.4 million contract this offseason. Losing him is a blow on multiple fronts, especially since they don’t have an easy way to replace him.
The Sixers still have one spot on the open standard roster, but they are limited to the first apron of $209.0 million. They’re only $1.8 million below that line at the moment, meaning they don’t have enough room under the first apron for a veteran minimum contract for anyone with even a single year of NBA experience. If they wanted to sign someone now, it would have to be an undrafted rookie free agent. Not exactly what the doctor ordered for the winning Sixers.
Minimum contracts begin to decrease prorated once the regular season begins, so the Sixers will be able to fill that final roster spot with a free agent signing starting Dec. 3. However, they may prefer to keep this spot open until the trade deadline to give themselves additional flexibility for an in-season addition.
If that’s the case, they’ll have to explore other ways to replace Hukporti for now.
The simplest would be a two-way contract. The Sixers still have one open two-way spot, and they have 7’6″ center Tacko Fall in training camp on an Exhibit 10 contract. However, Fall is currently nursing a hip strain and isn’t expected to be re-evaluated until mid-October, so he may not be ready for opening night either.
As other teams begin to trim their rosters to the 15-player limit in the regular season, the Sixers could look to poach someone who will be sidelined. Their pro scouting department is expected to work overtime over the next few weeks to determine the best way to fill this open two-way spot ahead of the season.
The Sixers could also explore a trade for a backup big, although their options are quite limited in that regard at the moment. Everyone they signed this summer isn’t eligible to be traded until at least Dec. 15 (including Hukporti), so their best options would be to move Dominick Barlow ($3.4 million), Walker ($2.6 million) or Justin Edwards ($2.4 million). They can take more salary than what they send into a trade since they are under the first apron, but they cannot under any circumstances go beyond the first apron. (What are the odds they can take away Jay Huff’s $2.7 million contract from the Indiana Pacers…?)
If Hukporti is confirmed out for the season, the Sixers could request a disabled player exception, although it wouldn’t do them much good. That would be worth 50% of Hukporti’s contract, or $1.7 million, meaning they could only use it to sign an undrafted rookie free agent or prorated veteran minimum contract. If they wanted to use it as a trade exception, they couldn’t recover more than $1.8 million (the value of the disabled player exception plus $100,000).
Finally, they could waive Walker, who only has $250,000 of his $2.6 million contract guaranteed through Jan. 10. If they waived him and signed a one-year, veteran-minimum contract in his place, they would add about $100,000 to their books in total, but they would still be $1.7 million below the first apron. That would give them enough flexibility to add someone else midseason with a prorated minimum contract, although they would have to wait until around mid-December to do so.
To put it lightly, the Sixers don’t have many interesting options to replace Hukporti at the moment. If Bona doesn’t recover from his opening night foot injury, the Sixers won’t have a single healthy backup center behind Embiid. Maybe they fill the gap with a two-way signee, but otherwise they’ll have to experiment with small-ball 5 looks until Bona returns.
In games that Embiid is absent, the Sixers’ center rotation is even more of a question mark going forward. Bona and Hukporti had planned to share the majority of the minutes on those evenings, but that is no longer the case. Head coach Nick Nurse will need to take out his mad scientist hat and find a way to put a center rotation together. Barlow, Walker and Dean Wade could all end up playing some minutes at the 5.
Hukporti’s injury is by no means the death knell for the Sixers’ title chances this year, but it shouldn’t be downplayed either. Until the Sixers find a way to fill this hole in their rotation, they will be vulnerable in the frontcourt, especially given Embiid’s long injury history.
Unless otherwise stated, all statistics via NBA.com, PBPStats, Clean the glass Or Basketball reference. All salary information via Spotrac and salary cap information via RealGM.
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