Could a P.J. Tucker reunion be in the cards for the Sixers? Not via trade, most likely.
P.J. Tucker began the 2024-25 NBA season in exile from the Los Angeles Clippers. He and the team mutually decided to keep him away “for the time being,” according to longtime NBA insider Marc Stein, as the Clippers look “to find the best situation for him moving forward.”
Could that be a reunion with the Sixers? On Thursday, Kelly Iko and Law Murray of The Athletic reported that a number of contenders—”including the 76ers, Heat, Bucks and Suns”—had “held trade conversations” with Tucker’s agent.
While the Sixers very well might be interested in bringing Tucker back, it would likely be via buyout, not trade. His contract almost necessitates as much.
Tucker is on the final year of the three-year, $33 million contract that the Sixers originally signed him to during the 2022 offseason. He’s earning roughly $11.5 million this year, which is more than anyone on the Sixers not named Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey or Paul George. That’s a critical caveat considering the Sixers’ apron status.
Since the Sixers are well above the first apron, they can’t take back a single dollar more in a trade than they send out. To acquire Tucker, they’d have to trade away at least two contracts, unless they included Embiid, Maxey or George. (Not happening.)
The Sixers signed KJ Martin to a two-year, $16 million contract this offseason in part to give themselves some salary-matching fodder for trades, but Martin’s salary this season ($7.975 million) is roughly $3.6 million short of Tucker’s. The Sixers couldn’t even include Eric Gordon ($3.3 million) or Reggie Jackson ($2.1 million) to cover the difference between Martin and Tucker’s contracts. They’d have to include one of Caleb Martin ($8.1 million), Kelly Oubre Jr. ($8.0 million), Andre Drummond ($5.0 million) or Jared McCain ($4.0 million).
The Sixers should have zero interest in including any of those four unless the Clippers were willing to give up additional assets. However, the Clippers don’t have much else to offer. They have no control over each of their next five first-round picks, and they don’t have a second-round pick until 2030, either. Even if the Clippers were willing to offer Tucker and their 2030 first-round pick for KJ Martin and McCain, the Sixers might prefer more immediate help for that package.
The Clippers are currently $4.85 million below the first apron, so they have some flexibility to take back additional salary in a Tucker deal with another non-apron team. However, all four of the Sixers, Heat, Bucks and Suns are well above the first apron, so none of them can take back more salary than they send out. The Clippers would have to explore three-team permutations to take advantage of their remaining space below the apron.
Title hopefuls are the only teams that should be interested in the 39-year-old Tucker at this stage of his career, and most contenders are well above the first apron. Given the restrictiveness of the new trade rules for apron teams, Tucker’s future likely won’t get resolved any time soon. It very well might drag out until the trade deadline, at which point teams will be jostling for his services if (when?) he gets bought out.
Teams above either apron can’t sign players who were earning more than the non-taxpayer mid-level exception prior to getting bought out, but that won’t be an issue for Tucker. The non-taxpayer MLE is $12.8 million this season, so he’ll be free to sign wherever he chooses if he does eventually get bought out.
The Sixers did leave one roster spot open heading into the season to maintain flexibility ahead of the trade deadline and the buyout market. A reunion with Tucker could be in the cards later this season via buyout, but it’s highly unlikely to come via trade.
Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Salary Swish and salary-cap information via RealGM.