According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Philadelphia 76ers re-signed forward KJ Martin to a two-year, $16 million contract on Friday, continuing their summer spending binge. They are now around $178.1 million, significantly over the NBA’s $170.8 million luxury tax level, but still much below the $188.9 million second apron.
The magnitude of Martin’s contract may surprise you, but that’s because to the NBA’s new collective bargaining agreement.
There was just one apron under the prior CBA. Teams that were beyond that limit might keep $100,000 in addition to 125% of the pay they sent out in trades. Teams over the first apron are prohibited by the current CBA from keeping even a single dollar of money that they send out.
Martin was awarded the contract by the Sixers for this reason. He’s effectively become a human trade exception.With the addition of Paul George to a maximum contract of $211.6 million for four years, the Sixers have an incredibly top-heavy roster. Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid, and George are each signed to a separate contract.
The only other Sixers making more than $5 million this season were those two. When it came time to match salaries in midseason transactions, that would have been an issue.
Now that he’s healthy as a backup power forward for the time being, KJ Martin gives the Sixers a $8 million midseason trade chip. Although the specifics of his contract are yet unknown, it is expected that his 2025–2026 pay will be non-guaranteed, much as Josh Okogie’s previous agreement with the Phoenix Suns.
Michael Scotto of HoopsHype was informed by league insiders that the Suns purposefully “gave Okogie an inflated salary in the contract structure to use as a potential trade chip.” Martin and the Sixers appeared to follow a similar course of action.
The Sixers are not currently hard-capped at either apron, but if they finish above the first apron following the transaction, they will not be permitted to retain more salary than they send out in a trade. They would not be permitted to aggregate contracts if they exceeded the second apron unless the agreement specifically placed them beneath the second apron.
This offseason, the Sixers have manipulated the salary cap on several occasions. Over time, those gains on the margins usually pile up. The most recent instance is the Martin contract.
