During his latest Bleacher Report live stream (YouTube link), NBA insider Jake Fischer said there have been persistent rumblings that the Sixers may be considering a salary-dump deal to give them more financial flexibility to re-sign restricted free agent Quentin Grimes.
“There has been buzz all summer long about the Sixers looking to potentially move one of, if not both, Andre Drummond and/or Kelly Oubre,” Fischer said. “If they are able to find a deal for one of those two guys as we get closer to camp, that would open up some more wiggle room for Philadelphia to be able to pay Grimes a little bit more (money).”
Both Drummond ($5MM) and Oubre ($8.4MM) exercised their player options for 2025/26 and will be unrestricted free agents next offseason.
This isn’t the first time Drummond has been mentioned in trade rumors this summer — Tony Jones of The Athletic reported on June 30 that Philadelphia was trying to move the two-time All-Star center. But we haven’t heard anything else on that front until now.
Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron (Substack link) noted a few days ago that the Sixers could potentially dip below the luxury tax line while re-signing Grimes if they traded both Drummond and Oubre. Gozlan pointed to the Nets — the lone NBA team with cap room remaining — as a potential match.
A source confirmed to Net Income of NetsDaily.com that acquiring Drummond (along with other assets) would be the type of move Brooklyn is looking for.
Oubre is also no stranger to trade rumors and makes logical sense as a player on an expiring contract who could be moved. But we haven’t seen any reports linking him to a specific team.
When our Luke Adams discussed yesterday in a Front Office article what a contract compromise might look like between Grimes and the Sixers, he floated the possibility of a four-year, $65MM deal with a partial guarantee in year four.
For what it’s worth, Grimes recently took to Instagram to post a picture of himself in a Sixers uniform, as Kyle Neubeck of PHLY Sports relays (via Twitter).
Not sure it would be worth it to lose Oubre at those prices for Grimes. A lot of his production last year came in large losses with a depleted team
With NY his problem was confidence and aggressiveness. Last season, he overcame that. I think he’s permanently improved.
AK should redeem himself for all of his bad moves and trade for Andre Drummond. He was so much fun to watch during his Bulls tenure and legit seems like a great dude.
The Nets are $7 million under minimum salary, but they also have 17 players. They would need to get rid of at least 3 players to acquire a new player, but then they will be over $13 million under minimum team salary. If they get rid of 4 players then they will be $16 million under.
Three team trade where Lakers send Kleber or Vincent to the Nets and their 2032 second round pick. The Lakers get Drummond from the Sixers, and sign De’Anthony Melton for veteran minimum. The Sixers send Oubre to the Nets. The Nets get rid of four of their non-guaranteed contracts.
Everyone gets their needs met.
Nets only have 15 under roster fully
Keon and Jalen Wilson have small guarantees while Timme and TYreses Martin have 0 guaranteed on theirs
I assume they will cut all those guys bring in some slop via trade (to cut) while rosters are allowed to be expanded then possibly circle back to the cuts w Exhit 10’s or thier last 2 way spot to at least get (some of) them into camp
They still need to burn about 7.5 Mill to get to the floor
If they cut the non-guaranteed players you need to add their salaries they to the $7 million to hit the floor.
Its like 325 k, nominal
They’re at $325K below counting 17 players. They need to release 3 to sign a bigger contract. The three least earning players total salaries are $6.5 million. Do, they do need to acquire a player that makes at least $7 million.
Yes they do, and its probably just going to be some deadweight fella who gets cut immediately for draft capital if I had one guess.
At that point they can circle back to some of those guys to at least get them to camp
They are probably waiting for a team who gets super tight on the aprons to extract full value for the money dump
Drummond they can lose at this point but Oubre is good value at 8.4 million. Even if they have McCain and Edgecombe starting ID want him off the bench. I don’t trust pgs health to trade away a good player
I mean are they including a pick like MIA did with Highsmith?
If so, MEM can use a big while Edey is out.
They could also just sign someone like Thomas Bryant for $2.5M, and buy a 2nd for the other $2.5M they would’ve given to Drummond if they see the need.
Guess it depends if they’d want someone to solely snag boards and stay in the paint, or someone that can do that to a lesser extent AND spread the floor some.
Drummond to Memphis is actually a good idea
I kind of forgot the Sixers existed
They don’t think of you much either.
I think thats expected though I would be greatly honored if they did
No real reason the Celtics couldn’t squeeze five mil onto their roster for Drummond. They could use him and (healthy) he’s a big improvement over Queta.
Except he isn’t. Not for the Celtics. He can’t switch on D; he can’t rim run, he’s awful defending the pick and roll. You’re just looking at rebounding stats or remembering what Drummond used to be.
That’s the problem with the modern NBA. Not every C needs to switch on defence. Not all 30 teams need to switch on defence. This is predictable. No dribbling or defence. Not every NBA defensive gameplan needs to switch on defence. Everyone must be too weak to play some actual man to man defense. Defend on the pick and roll….yeah same thing. You sound like a modern NBA fan in this weak era. You must think every NBA center needs to shoot 3s too. The Celtics could use a veteran center to help the young guys learn. None of these centers today play any defense. Name me five NBA players who actually play defense. Thomas Hamilton definitely was everything you said in your post when he played scrub minutes
Obrue was a key piece for them. And with Embiid. I don’t see why you’d want to move Drummond. If you want to keep Grimes. Then you don’t need Gordon or Lowry. Or you can sign n trade Grimes before Oct 1. A future #1 pick would be nice.