Philadelphia 76ers: Ben Simmons deal sets Sixers up to become taxpayers

After several years of paying bonuses to meet the salary floor, the post-Process Philadelphia 76ers are living in a new, pricey neighborhood now.

A little more than three years ago, the Philadelphia 76ers were eating $26 million in dead money just to avoid falling under the NBA’s salary floor — which they had done in each of the previous two seasons.

That was, of course, in the middle of Philadelphia’s infamous rebuilding plan known as “The Process,” when the club was put together with the intention of losing as much as possible in order to maximize the 76ers’ odds in the NBA Draft Lottery.

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The Sixers emerged from The Process with a competitive squad that has won a playoff series in each of the last two postseasons and now the franchise is set to really start paying the price even for that modest bit of success.

According to Spotrac, Philadelphia has already blown past the 2019-20 salary cap of $109.14 million and are less than $10 million from the luxury tax apron, set this season at just shy of $132.63 million.

And with young star Ben Simmons this week signing a maximum rookie-scale extension — five years and $169.65 million 00 the 76ers are projected to blow past the projected tax apron of $142 million when Simmons’ deal takes effect for the 2020-21 season.

The Sixers have four contracts of $27.5 million or more on their cap sheet for 2020-21:

Tobias Harris, $33.52 million
Joel Embiid, $29.54 million
Ben Simmons, $29.25 million
Al Horford, $27.25 million

Those four deals alone would put Philadelphia above the projected salary cap of $117,000,000.

With the other guaranteed deals currently on the books for 2020-21 — Josh Richardson at $10.87 million, Mike Scott at $5.01 million, Matisse Thybulle at $2.71 million along with James Ennis‘ $2.07 million player option — the Sixers are already looking at an estimated tax bill of nearly $8 million.

The price of success in the NBA is high. Championship-caliber squads routinely flirt with and ultimately blast past the tax apron in order to keep a contending core together.

The 76ers are at that level now, just without the being legitimate contenders part … at least so far.

Philadelphia will have a new look next season. While the Sixers are running it back with homegrown stars Embiid and Simmons along with the re-signed Harris, they have swapped Jimmy Butler for Richardson and have added Horford to what could be a gigantic and very skilled first unit.

But it’s a pricey first unit, even in 2019-20 before Simmons’ max deal takes effect, with that group eating up 96 percent ($104.75) of the team’s cap space of $109.14 million.

So the Sixers will be feeling some pressure from within to move to the next level and, preferably, into an NBA Finals berth.

Paying this much for a third straight second-round exit — or worse, a first-round flame out — could spell the end for coach Brett Brown, who has led the team to a 103-61 mark over the last two regular seasons after a 75-253 horror show during the four years of The Process.

The Sixers got closer in 2018-19 than they did the previous season, so there was measurable improvement. Philadelphia was a crazily bouncing Kawhi Leonard fadeaway from overtime in Game 7 against the eventual champion Toronto Raptors this year.

In 2018, the end was much more emphatic, as the 76ers were dismantled by the Boston Celtics’ defense in a five-game second-round defeat.

Simmons getting a max extension is not without controversy. The Australian point guard wrapped in a power forward’s frame is a dynamic playmaker with one oft-discussed flaw in his game to this point — his jump shot.

Simmons, who turns 23 on Saturday, has attempted 17 3-pointers in his two NBA seasons. His career total of made 3s matches my own — zero. So, yes, having Simmons on the floor for 34 minutes a game over those two seasons has created some spacing issues for the club.

On the other hand, however, Philadelphia had no real choice but to take it to the max to keep Simmons in the fold.

An All-Star last season for the first time, Simmons is one of just three players to average at least 16 points, eight rebounds and seven assists per game over his first two years, per Basketball Reference.

The other two are fairly well-known in NBA circles — Hall of Famers Oscar Robertson and Magic Johnson.

Both of Philadelphia’s homegrown stars had their warts at the time the Sixers opted to offer each a max rookie-scale extension.

Embiid got his five-year, $146.67 million extension based on playing just 31 games over his first three NBA seasons, sitting out all of the 2014-15 and 2015-16 campaigns before his twice-delayed “rookie” season in 2016-17.

He’s been healthier since signing the extension, playing in 127 of the team’s 164 regular-season games the last two years. But he’s missed three playoff games in that span and been limited by injuries during both playoff runs.

Can Simmons expand his range enough to force opposing defenses to cover him on the perimeter? Can Embiid finally put together a healthy playoff run?

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The Philadelphia 76ers are about to spend a lot of money to learn the answer to those questions.