Philadelphia 76ers: Don’t rule out another addition post-Willie Cauley-Stein

In case you haven’t heard, the Philadelphia 76ers‘ roster is whole once more.

That’s right, after freeing up a roster spot in the James Harden trade earlier this month, Daryl Morey and company opted to sign ex-Dallas Mavericks center Willie Cauley-Stein to a brand spanking new 10-day contract (read more on that here).

So that’s that, right? With Cauley-Stein’s deal set to run through March 4th, the Sixers are officially out on the buyout market, right? Well… not necessarily. As you may or may not know, when Morey appeared on the Rights to Ricky Sanchez podcast, he detailed how the team had a buyout candidate more or less set following the Harden trade, with the only thing holding up its official announcement being the player’s current contract status.

Could that player have been Cauley-Stein? I mean, I guess so, but Morey is pretty careful with his words, and had the team wanted to announce a deal with Cauley-Stein, they could have at any point, as he hasn’t had an NBA contract since January 15th.

So what gives? Was Daryl Morey’s assumption that a player he liked ultimately didn’t come to fruition? Did the team simply feel dissatisfied with their current rotation and opted to “settle” for the former Dallas Maverick instead of the mystery player in question? My take? It doesn’t matter: Signing Willie Cauley-Stein doesn’t close the door on the buyout market.

The Philadelphia 76ers are still players in the buyout market.

In the NBA, 10-day contracts aren’t guaranteed. A player can sign one and get waived later that day, or sign a second 10-day contract a few days later, or even string together a number of 10-day contracts in a row before a team can make a decision one way or another.

Take, for example, one-time Houston Rockets forward Danuel House Jr., who initially signed a 10-day contract with the New York Knicks in December before stringing together three 10-day contracts with the Utah Jazz in January. House eventually signed a full-on NBA contract with the Jazz the day after the trade deadline, which led some folks – hi – to wonder if he was about to reunite with James Harden on the Philadelphia 76ers, but for a time, the Texas A&M product could have conceivably signed anywhere, as Utah no longer held his right.

In this particular situation, things aren’t quite so cut and dry, as the NBA has a rule that waived players have to be released by March 1st to be eligible for the playoffs, so one way or another, the Sixers have to make a decision in the not too distant future about Willie Cauley-Stein or someone else. Dubbed “The Gary Payton Rule,” March 1st now serves as the unofficial end to the buyout market and thus creates some momentum for players looking to land on a playoff-bound team to get out of their deals and sign a new one.

Could a player like Derrick Favors, Ben McLemore, or Gary Harris wriggle their way free before March 1st? Sure, with very few buyout players on the market thus far, there is a chance for a proven commodity like Harris to effectively pick his home among almost every team with a legit chance to make the Finals and jumpstart the next chapter of their NBA career. But will it actually happen? That, my friends, is the big question. After some overly ambitious observers assumed that players like John Wall could hit the open market after being relegated to watching games from home, the buyout market is looking a lot less bountiful than some folks initially assumed.

Who knows, maybe this is all for not, and Willie Cauley-Stein will either play well enough to earn the Philadelphia 76ers’ 15th roster spot outright or will stick around because no other option Daryl Morey and company prefer becomes available. If that happens, then cool, the Sixers secured a center who can switch on defense, catch lobs, and set picks for James Harden. If not, well, that probably means a player the team liked better hit the market, which, again, is good news, especially if they don’t block the paths of Paul Reed and Charles Bassey to regular playing time.