Philadelphia 76ers: There’s no path to sign Al-Farouq Aminu
Though the start of the 2021-22 NBA season is mere hours away, many a team league-wide is till wheelin’ and dealin’ to get their roster down to 15 players plus two more on two-way deals.
For some players, like Sharife Cooper, Sekou Doumbouya, and Tacko Fall, this means signing two-way contracts to remain in the league after failing to make their respective teams’ active rosters. For others, like Avery Bradley, it means getting claimed off of waivers by the Los Angeles Lakers, where he’ll surely continue on with his journeyman ways.
And as for the Philadelphia 76ers? Well, the only move they’ve made since officially signing Charles Bassey back on September 24th is waiving preseason standout Shaquille Harrison, who signed with the Blue Coats shortly thereafter.
So naturally, when a premier 3-and-D rotational forward like Al-Faroug Aminu becomes available following a preseason release by the San Antonio Spurs, Daryl Morey and company would surely kick it into gear and get in on the action, right? Sure, while I’m sure the Philadelphia 76ers would love to sign up Joel Embiid’s fellow Team Africa member to fill out their depth chart moving forward, there’s a problem with that scenario: Who do you waive to free up a roster spot?
The Philadelphia 76ers don’t have a spot for Al-Farouq Aminu.
The 2021-22 Philadelphia 76ers’ roster is pretty meticulously composed.
They’re returning the most efficient starting five in the NBA from the season prior, have a bench loaded up with five “veteran” contributors, and give more players under the age of 22 who look to play varying roles for the team this season. And best of all, they have five more players under the age of 22 who look to play varying roles for the team this season.
Factor in a very intriguing defensive forward by the name of Aaron Henry and an admittedly injured Charlotte-drafted sharpshooter by the name of Grant Riller, and you’re left with a roster with a ton of shooting, good defense, a ton of veteran talent, and enough developmental potential to remain potent for years to come.
But do you want to know the one issue with having a full 17 man roster heading into the final breaths of the preseason? You can’t get in on signing any players who become available, even if they’d be solid fits on the roster otherwise.
So, just for fun, let’s say Daryl Morey does want to sign Al-Farouq Aminu. Who, pray tell, do you waive to free up a roster spot? The most obvious subtraction would be Riller, who won’t be back on the court for some time, but there’s no way Aminu would or even could sign such a deal, as he’s been in the NBA for going on 11 years and counting and thus is ineligible for a two-way contract.
Okay, two-way guys excluded, who is the next least safe player on the Sixers’ roster? Well, of the 15 players on their active roster, all but one, Drummond, have either a player option, a team option, or just a good old fashion year of service left on their respective contracts. That means waiving any such player would result in dead money on the cap – which doesn’t really matter – at the expense of swapping out a long-term asset for a short-term stop-gap.
For a team like the Los Angeles Lakers, that might not be particularly noteworthy, as they traded away half of their 2020-21 depth chart to procure Russell Westbrook from the Washington Wizards, but for the Sixers, signing Aminu would mean saying goodbye to a player like Shake Milton, Charles Bassey, or Jaden Springer, all of whom are either objectively better or present a higher upside at this point in their career.
No, at this point, the only real path the Sixers have to free up roster spots would be to execute a trade where they send out more players than they bring back, which appears unlikely unless a superstar player like Damian Lillard, James Harden, or Bradley Beal demands a trade before Aminu signs elsewhere.
*sigh* For all of our mental health, it’s probably better to just accept that such a demand isn’t coming down the pike.
Next. Was passing on Sharife Cooper a mistake?. dark
No, for better or worse, the Philadelphia 76ers are who they are heading into the 2021 NBA season. They have a lot of the same players as a year before, albeit with an improved frontcourt bench and some very intriguing draftees heading into their second season of action. What they don’t have, fortunately or not, is a spot to take on average free agents like Al-Farouq Aminu, who could be solid contributors in the right scheme but isn’t the sort of transcendent talent worthy of waiving a young player to free up a roster spot. That likely won’t happen until after the 2022 NBA trade deadline, if it happens at all.