The NBA’s few remaining notable agents not named Jalen Duren have started flying off the board over the past few weeks. Peyton Watson is now a Cleveland Cavalier. DeMar DeRozan is now a Denver Nugget. Jonathan Kuminga is now a Minnesota Timberwolf? Sure, whatever.
The latest came Thursday when the Heat landed Nick Richards on a one-year, presumably veteran-minimum contract, per ESPN’s Shams Charania. Richards led our late-July list of free-agent options for the Sixers if they missed out on LeBron James, but fortunately, they landed LeBron the day after that piece published. You’re welcome, America.
After signing LeBron and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, the Sixers are roughly $1.8 million below their $209.0 million first-apron hard cap. They currently do not have enough space under the first apron to sign anyone to a minimum contract other than undrafted rookies.
Fortunately, minimum contracts begin to prorate downward daily once the regular season begins. By early December, the Sixers should have enough wiggle room to fill their remaining open roster spot, although they’ll likely keep it open until the trade deadline to see which options shake free.
If the following free agents don’t find new homes before the start of the season, the Sixers should at least keep tabs on them as potential in-season options.
Kelly Olynyk, PF/C
Kelly Olynyk averaged a career-low 3.2 points and 1.8 rebounds in 8.6 minutes per game across 42 appearances with the San Antonio Spurs last season. Granted, he was on a roster with four other centers. The Spurs relied on Luke Kornet as their primary backup to French wunderkind Victor Wembanyama, which left Olynyk battling with Mason Plumlee and Bismack Biyombo for table scraps.
The 35-year-old Olynyk might be fully washed at this point of his career. But if nothing else, he’d at least add a different look to the Sixers’ frontcourt behind Joel Embiid, Adem Bona and Ariel Hukporti.
Bona has hit exactly two three-pointers across the first two years of his NBA career, while Hukporti has only one. Olynyk knocked down 12 last year alone and is a career 36.9 percent shooter from deep on 3.0 attempts per game.
Olynyk likely wouldn’t supplant Bona and/or Hukporti as the primary backup to Embiid. But if the Sixers occasionally wanted to trot out lineups with a floor-spacing center, he’d give them the ability to do so.
Kevin Love, C
Speaking of floor-spacing big men… it appears as though Kevin Love is already eyeing a reunion with LeBron, whom he played alongside for four years in Cleveland.
The soon-to-be 38-year-old Love is even older than Olynyk, but he’s still been productive in limited spurts in recent years. He averaged 6.7 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.4 made threes in only 16.6 minutes per game across 37 outings with the Utah Jazz last season.
Even in his prime, Love didn’t provide much rim protection, but he’s an elite rebounder and an above-average three-point shooter. His locker room leadership and built-in chemistry with LeBron is a plus, too. NBA teams can never have too many Good Vibes guys.
It wouldn’t be remotely surprising if Love winds up snagging the Sixers’ final roster spot at some point this season.
Bruce Brown Jr., SG
During a Bleacher Report livestream on Tuesday, NBA insider Jake Fischer reported Bruce Brown Jr. “would have been in the mix in Philadelphia” had the Sixers not landed LeBron. However, KCP “kind of came as a bit of a package deal” with LeBron, which effectively closed the door on Brown landing with the Sixers this offseason.
“Bruce Brown is going to be playing for some type of playoff-caliber team this season,” Fischer added. “It’s just a matter of where and a matter of when.”
Fischer mentioned the Los Angeles Lakers as one possible Brown suitor, although they already have 16 players on guaranteed contracts. Unless they’re able to salary-dump two of those deals, they already have work to do just to get down to the 15-man roster maximum before they turn their attention to Brown.
If Brown can’t find a new home this offseason, the Sixers should keep tabs on the do-it-all 30-year-old. He averaged 7.9 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 24.4 minutes per game off the bench in Denver last season, and he was a key reserve in the Nuggets’ championship run during the 2022-23 campaign.
Jeff Green, PF
What’s better than having one 40-year-old on your roster? Having two 40-year-olds on your roster.
Jeff Green just turned 40 on Aug. 28. He shot a career-worst 36.8 percent overall this past season and averaged a career-low 2.2 points and 0.8 rebounds in only 5.8 minutes per game off the bench in Houston, which hardly inspires much confidence. However, he averaged a far more respectable 5.4 points in 12.4 minutes per game while shooting 50.4 percent overall in 2024-25.
The Sixers do seem to be lacking forward depth behind LeBron and Jaylen Brown, particularly at the 3, barring a leap from Justin Edwards. Green is far more of a power forward at this stage of his career than a small forward, but he’d give the Sixers another warm body off the bench to join Edwards, Dean Wade, Dominick Barlow and Jabari Walker.
Green did play one season alongside LeBron in Cleveland in 2017-18, and he also won a championship with the Nuggets in 2022-23. He’d mostly be a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency option at forward for the Sixers, but his locker room leadership could go a long way as the Sixers look to put aside their egos for the greater good this season.
Drew Eubanks, C
After spending the first three-and-a-half years of his NBA career in San Antonio, Drew Eubanks has bounced between the Portland Trail Blazers, Phoenix Suns, Utah Jazz, Los Angeles Clippers and Sacramento Kings over the past four seasons alone. The 14.5 points and 8.5 rebounds that he averaged during a 22-game stint in Portland in 2021-22 proved to be a mirage, but he’s been steadily productive in limited minutes ever since.
Across that four-year stretch, Eubanks has averaged 5.5 points, 4.3 rebounds and 0.9 blocks in only 15.8 minutes per game while shooting 61.3 percent overall. He’s taken threes sparingly, although he’s 14-of-34 from distance (41.2 percent) during that span.
Eubanks might not be a long-range bomber like Kelly Olynyk or Kevin Love, but as Andre Drummond proved last season, the occasional out-of-nowhere three-pointer from a backup big man can still be demoralizing for opponents. At 6’10” and 245 pounds, he at least has the size to hold down the fort for a few minutes whenever Embiid is off the floor.
Granted, players typically don’t bounce between that many teams for no good reason. One look at Eubanks’ Dunks and Threes page gives a solid clue as to why he’s already become an NBA journeyman.
Tony Bradley, C
Once a Sixer, always a Sixer?
The Sixers acquired Tony Bradley in November 2020 in exchange for Zhaire Smith (sigh). He was the third-string center that season behind Embiid and Dwight Howard, although he did play in 20 games and made eight starts. The Sixers then flipped him and a handful of second-round picks for George Hill at the trade deadline, which blew up in their face almost immediately.
After Bradley’s brief stint with the OKC Thunder, he spent two years in Chicago, 1.5 years in Indianapolis and had a cup of coffee in Atlanta last season. He’d be nothing more than another insurance policy in case Embiid went down with a long-term injury, but that’s still a valuable archetype for the Sixers given Embiid’s injury history.
Granted, having to choose between the likes of Bradley, Eubanks and Green or someone who shakes free at the trade deadline is exactly why the Sixers figure to leave that roster spot open for now. It would behoove them to spend the first few months of the season identifying their new-look roster’s biggest needs before seeking to address those.
Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac and salary-cap information via RealGM.
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