Sixers waiving 29-year-old big man, possibly to clear space for a veteran NBA champion?

The Sixers are waiving big man Montrezl Harrell in order to reach the regular season roster limit, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).

Philadelphia had been carrying 16 players on standard contracts and needed to get down to 15 before opening night. Harrell was one of 14 Sixers players whose salary for 2023/24 is fully guaranteed, but he underwent knee surgery in August after tearing his right ACL and medial meniscus, making him an obvious candidate to be released.

Harrell didn’t see significant playing time in Philadelphia’s rotation last season, averaging 5.6 points and 2.8 rebounds in just 11.9 minutes per game across 57 appearances.

That made it a bit of a surprise when the 29-year-old re-signed with the 76ers on a one-year, minimum-salary deal this summer, especially since the club also added Mohamed Bamba and Filip Petrusev to its frontcourt while retaining restricted free agent Paul Reed.

It’s possible that Harrell anticipated the team’s head coaching change could create an opportunity for more minutes. In his previous five seasons, he had put up 14.5 PPG and 5.9 RPG in 361 games (23.3 MPG), earning Sixth Man of the Year honors in 2020.

An ACL tear is an injury that has sidelined a handful of NBA players for a full year – or longer – in recent seasons, but Harrell is hoping to return sometime after the All-Star break, according to Charania. That’s an aggressive recovery timeline, so we’ll have to wait and see if he can achieve that goal.

Assuming Harrell goes unclaimed on waivers, which is a safe bet, the veteran forward/center will earn $2,891,467, while the 76ers will carry a dead-money cap hit of $2,019,706. The move clears a path for Petrusev and Danny Green – neither of whom has a fully guaranteed salary – to make the 15-man regular-season roster.