76ers Continue Unserious Pursuit Of A Title But Doing Nothing But Ducking The Tax At The Trade Deadline

Another year, another trade deadline where the Philadelphia 76ers do nothing but make moves to get under the luxury tax.

76ers’ basketball has been through the wringer over the past decade-plus, never really finding its footing or cementing itself as a top NBA team. Despite producing multiple All-Star and All-NBA players over the years, the team has not been able to even make it to a conference finals appearance.

While things haven’t always gone their way, with some things beyond their control, they haven’t done a great job with the things they have been able to control. Whether it’s signing draft picks, the 76ers have messed up the majority of those decisions, and when it comes to making improvements at the midseason trade deadline, they usually do whatever they have to do to not make actual improvements, and just duck the Luxury Tax.

The Luxury Tax, for those who don’t know, is the tax that NBA team owners must pay if the team they own exceeds a certain threshold that’s set prior to the season. If a team spends over that amount that’s set, then for every dollar they go over, they must pay a tax. For the 2025-26 season, the following amounts were set if the team went over:

• $0-$5M over: $1.50 per dollar
• $5M-$10M over: $1.75 per dollar
• $10M-$15M over: $2.50 per dollar
• $15M-$20M over: $3.25 per dollar
• $20M+ over: $3.75 per dollar (plus $0.50 for every additional $5M)

Repeat offenders of going over the Luxury Tax will pay more money, so teams often try to stay under that tax line so that the owners don’t have to spend money. Since 76ers owner Josh Harris purchased the team in 2011, the team has never gone over the Luxury Tax.

Now it’s one thing if the 76ers are a bad team and have no chance at winning a championship; you obviously want to not pay for a non-winning team. However, the 76ers have been well in contention in the Eastern Conference for the better part of the last eight years, and in that time, the team only considered going over once back in 2019. That season was the year when the team lost a heartbreaker Game 7 to the Toronto Raptors on Kawhi Leonard’s game-winning corner shot.

Since then, the team has screwed up multiple chances to get to the Finals, losing multiple Game 7’s in the second round, and they didn’t know what their future would look like for next few years.

But you jump now to 2026, and the 76ers are in one of the best spots the team has ever been in, with one of their deepest rosters they’ve had in years. Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid are both playing at high-end all-star levels, with Maxey being in consideration for the league’s MVP and Embiid looking healthier than ever.

On top of that thier No.3 pick from last year’s draft, VJ Edgecombe, looks like a home run pick. Paul George, while currently suspended, has been servicable, and their other supporting cast players, led by Dominick Barlow, Kelly Oubre Jr, and Quentin Grimes.

They sit at 29-21, and 5th in a wide-open Eastern Conference, and when asked by the media about the deadline, Joel Embiid stated that he hoped the 76ers made a move to help improve the roster, instead of just trying to stay under the tax line. “In the past, we’ve been ducking the luxury tax, so hopefully we think about improving,” Embiid said. “I believe we have a chance.”

However, they did the exact opposite.

All they did was trade Jared McCain, their second-year guard, for a projected mid-20s first-round pick in this summer’s draft, three second-round picks, and also traded Eric Gordon and a 2032 second-round pick swap to the Memphis Grizzlies. Essentially, they made two trades that do nothing to improve their current roster.

Despite their star big man asking to finally make moves to help improve the team, Josh Harris and the 76ers front office have once again only done what they had to do to get under the Luxury Tax and avoid paying money. The Frustrating part is that even if they go a little over, they’re only paying a few million extra, but Harris continues to focus on not paying anything and just letting the 76ers stay subpar.

Now there’s still an opportunity for the 76ers to sign someone in the buyout market, but even if they do, this deadline will still feel like a missed opportunity for a 76ers team that has a good enough chance to stay hot and possibly make the NBA Finals.

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