Sixers Claim Thomas Robinson, Release Frazier

5:39pm: The Sixers have claimed Robinson and released Frazier, the team announced in a press release.

4:33pm: Chances are slim that Philly will waive Robinson, a league source tells Windrem, noting that he wouldn’t be playoff-eligible for another team if he hits waivers again after Sunday (Twitter link).

4:23pm: The league has informed the other teams that the Sixers have indeed claimed Robinson off waivers, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com hears (Twitter link).

4:20pm: A league source suggests to NetsDaily’s Robert Windrem that the Sixers don’t have much interest in Robinson and simply did the move to reach the salary floor (Twitter link).

4:15pm: Philly’s initial plan is to keep Robinson and take an “extended look” at him, a league source told Wojnarowski for his full story.

4:04pm: The Sixers have claimed Robinson and released Frazier, according to Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer (Twitter link). Philadelphia has yet to make a public announcement, however. If the team has indeed let go of Frazier, he immediately becomes a free agent and isn’t subject to waivers, since he was on a 10-day contract.

3:53pm: Philadelphia has indeed submitted a claim, Wojnarowski reports (Twitter link), so he’s poised to join the team after the top of the hour.

3:27pm: The Sixers are likely to claim Thomas Robinson off waivers from the Nuggets, spoiling Brooklyn’s deal to sign him, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). That’d be a boon to Denver, which would have his entire salary of more than $3.678MM wiped from its cap, rather than simply the amount that Robinson agreed to relinquish in their buyout deal. It would also send the Sixers over the $56.759MM minimum team salary, meaning they wouldn’t have to pay their existing players the difference between their team salary and the minimum. Philadelphia would have to waive a player to make the claim, since it has a full 15-man roster, though Tim Frazier is on a 10-day contract. The deadline to submit a claim is 4pm Central time.

Robinson had reportedly agreed to sign a 10-day contract with the Nets, though Wojnarowski wrote that the Nets were expected to eventually sign him for the rest of the season. The former No. 5 overall pick went from the Blazers to the Nuggets in a deadline-day trade. He’s been set for unrestricted free agency this summer ever since Portland declined the fourth-year team option on his rookie scale contract this past fall. The Sixers would be unable to re-sign him to a starting salary of more than the approximately $4.66MM value of that option if they claimed him off waivers.

The Nets have reportedly been interested in bringing back Andray Blatche, so missing out on Robinson would seemingly reopen that possibility, tweets Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders. Still, a league source tells Tim Bontemps of the New York Post that the Nets have no immediate plans for their lone open roster spot, which Robinson was expected to fill (Twitter link).

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