JULY 25: The Sixers have officially signed Bolden, the team announced today in a press release.
“We have been following Jonah Bolden for a while and are very excited to bring him into our program as a young, up-and-coming prospect,” head coach Brett Brown said in a statement. “He experienced positive growth and development last season at Maccabi Tel Aviv, a team led by Neven Spahija, who is a friend of our program and an excellent coach. Jonah’s style of play is that of a modern-day player and we’re thrilled to grow our team with him.”
JULY 20: The Sixers have reached a contract agreement with 2017 second-round pick Jonah Bolden, and will sign him to a four-year, $7MM deal, tweets Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports. The final two years of Bolden’s contract will be non-guaranteed, reports Derek Bodner of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Before finalizing an agreement with Bolden, the 76ers reached a deal to trade Richaun Holmes to the Suns, clearing a path for Bolden in more ways than one.
Bolden will replace Holmes as the 15th man on Philadelphia’s roster, and the trade of Holmes opened up the cap room necessary for the Sixers to complete Bolden’s signing. Without that cap space, the team could only have offered up to two years using either the room exception or the minimum salary exception.
The 36th overall pick in 2017, Bolden remained overseas for one more year, spending the 2017/18 campaign with Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel. He averaged 6.9 PPG and 5.5 RPG in 29 EuroLeague games, along with 7.6 PPG and 6.6 RPG in 26 Israeli League contests.
Despite playing international ball last year as a draft-and-stash prospect, Bolden has long been expected to join the Sixers for the 2018/19 season. Even after the dismissal of president of basketball operations Bryan Colangelo, who drafted Bolden, the 22-year-old said earlier this month that he planned on joining the NBA club.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
If this is all Brett Brown they should just let him run the show in Philly. You could argue maybe they should’ve gotten a pick for Holmes but I mean really what were they going to do with another future 2nd rounder. Plus, people knew they had to clear a roster spot or two anyways.
The end of the roster definitely needed to be weeded out. I thought there was some value in TLC, Justin Anderson, and Holmes but I guess the rest of the league disagreed. Muscala could be a nice get if he is capable of stretching the floor and replacing Bjelica.
The interesting thing here is that now I think the only remaining player from Hinkie’s throw everything at the wall and see what sticks phase of the process is Covington, right?
Depending on what you mean by that, TJ is still there. And korkmanz as well as a few other stashed bigs
I forget about TJ, and I wasn’t really counting stashed players, I forgot about that. Furkan Aldemir lol those were the days
Don’t forget about saric. That was a big gamble that really paid off. Glad we waited for him.
Did really like Holmes… Will have to wait and see about Bolden
I liked Holmes as well. He plays with energy and heart. And he has skill. I was hoping we’d keep him, but so much for that.
I suspect Holmes is better. Bolden was unimpressive in summer league or in Israel, and Holmes fell off a bit last year. “Length” won.
Correct. Bolden isn’t very good. Holmes is a dirt poor man’s WCS
“Yesssssss! Yesssssss! Pedro for class president!”
Bolden looked terrible in Summer League, which is troubling. But Holmes is what he is, hit his ceiling and should only be a 10-18 min bench big bc hed just a lob threat or put back theeat. Bolden at least has some range. TLC showed he can ball out when it doesnt matter and you’re the #1 option, not much in a reservespot, maybe the Hawks give him some room to run and he develops. Otherwise was a wasted #1 pick.
I’ll miss Holmes. I hope this kid becomes to camp with a fire inside him because he didn’t show much in the summer league.