Are the Philadelphia 76ers a potential landing spot for Mario Chalmers?
Free agency is all but over, but the Philadelphia 76ers are still roughly $21 million below the salary cap. That's no surprise.
Philly's general manager Sam Hinkie has no interest in winning games next season, and so long as he carries out this long-term rebuild, his bosses don't want to spend more money than they have to.
But another advantage to having lots of cap space is it puts the Sixers in position to take on unwanted contracts from other teams. We saw this practice take hold earlier this month, when the Sacramento Kings dumped Carl Landry and Jason Thompson on Philadelphia's lap. The 76ers received several impressive future assets for their trouble.
This may happen again, this time with the Miami Heat, a team trying desperately to cut costs so they can avoid the luxury tax.
Mario Chalmers seems like a perfect fit. He plays a position of need on Philly's roster and can presumably help make Jahlil Okafor and Nerlens Noel better offensive players. Chalmers also has championship experience and made four straight trips to the NBA Finals.
The real motivation from Hinkie's end wouldn't be taking Chalmers and his $5.3 million expiring contract on, though. It'd be snatching a draft pick (or draft picks, plural) or another asset from Miami.
Both teams would be happy with this sort of transaction, so don't be surprised if it goes down at some point before training camp opens.
