Sixers Waive Carl Landry, Tibor Pleiss

The Sixers have created a couple open spots on their roster, according to Shams Charania of The Vertical, who reports (via Twitter) that the team has waived veteran big men Carl Landry and Tibor Pleiss. Both players will become free agents if and when they clear waivers.

A nine-year NBA veteran, Landry appeared in 36 games for the Sixers last season, averaging 9.8 PPG and 4.1 RPG while shooting 55.6% from the floor. He should draw interest from NBA teams in need of veteran frontcourt help. As for Pleiss, Philadelphia acquired the German big man last week in a salary-dump trade, and we heard yesterday that the team intended to part ways with him.

Landry had a salary of $6.5MM owed to him for the 2016/17 season, while Pleiss was set to make $3MM. Both figures were fully guaranteed, however, so the Sixers will still be on the hook for nearly $10MM in salary for the two players.

By waiving Landry and Pleiss in advance of today’s stretch provision deadline, Philadelphia will also have the option of stretching the two cap hits over the next three years. However, the Sixers currently sit well below the 2016/17 salary floor, so it would be a little surprising if the team added money to its cap in future seasons in order to reduce this year’s cap hits.

After waiving Landry and Pleiss, the Sixers will still have plenty of frontcourt depth on their roster, with young players like Nerlens Noel, Jahlil Okafor, Ben Simmons, Dario Saric, and Joel Embiid leading the way at the forward and center positions. The club will also reduce its roster count to 18 players, meaning there will be two open spots on the 20-man offseason roster. Only 11 of those 18 contracts currently on the books are fully guaranteed.

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