5 Sixers thoughts: Coming up with trade ideas; will the Sixers sign any free agents to 10-day contracts before the deadline?

Only 24 days remain before the NBA's Feb. 5 trade deadline, at which point the Sixers will have to decide once and for all: is this group worth investing more resources into?

It is a difficult question to answer, perhaps even more now that the Sixers have staged such an impressive last few weeks. Joel Embiid played six games in a row for the first time in nearly two years before missing Sunday's game in Toronto on the front end of the Sixers' back-to-back, and even as Tyrese Maxey has leapfrogged into superstar conversations, Embiid remains the piece at the center of the Sixers' championship aspirations.

"I always say this: it's our best version if he's out there and he's good" Sixers head coach Nick Nurse said on Wednesday. "Hopefully, we can continue on with that."

Let's begin the week with 5 Sixers thoughts, starting with the remaining lack of clarity about the Sixers' strategy at the trade deadline before pitching a pair of kill-two-birds-with-one-stone trades and discussing the potential of the team utilizing 10-day contracts later this month:

Sixers' trade deadline options remain murky

Make no mistake: even with enormous amounts of money wrapped up in their trio of max contracts handed out to Embiid, Paul George and Maxey, the Sixers are not without ammunition to bolster their roster if they want to do so. They cannot go hunting for stars, but they have all of the draft capital needed to get deals across the finish line and have an impressive collection of young players that teams will have interest in.

But if the Sixers cash in any of their ascending talents or draft picks. they will be making two bets at once: that they will be on the winning side of the trade, and that Embiid will be healthy enough and productive enough to pay it off. So there is not just a risk that trading Jared McCain at his point of lowest value, for example, would prove to be a bad long-term decision, but also that the short-term benefits of such a move might be irrelevant.

As the Sixers continue to play very good basketball – their brutal collapse on Sunday against Toronto notwithstanding – the idea of pushing chips in to become a stronger force in a weak Eastern Conference becomes more compelling. But unlike the New York Knicks and Detroit Pistons, the Sixers truly have no idea which of their players will be available on a night-to-night basis, let alone for a two-month playoff run.

The other part of this making the calculus so difficult: it is not exactly clear what the Sixers actually would need as far as rotation upgrades go.

Perhaps backup center is the most obvious option right now; Andre Drummond has been serviceable or better all season but his $5 million expiring salary might be needed to acquire any non-minimum players. Adem Bona's sophomore season has been up-and-down, he is not reliable on a game-by-game basis yet though it is important that the Sixers keep investing minutes in him so he can reach that point.

Before the season, the guess would have been that power forward was going to be the spot that would need upgrading, but Dominick Barlow has emerged as a reliable piece there on his two-way contract and fellow two-way signee Jabari Walker has generally been a quality bench piece as well. Between those two, Paul George sliding up to the four with regularity and Kelly Oubre Jr. back after multiple excellent weeks of doing the same, the Sixers have a lot at that position – and that is all without counting Trendon Watford, who is on the outside looking in at Nurse's rotation.

So, if it is not the backup center spot, where would the Sixers look for bolstering? Another wing would not hurt now that Justin Edwards appears more likely to play in a game in the G League than the NBA. But even there, the Sixers have George and Oubre in addition to a reliance on three-guard lineups. It would be nice to have more depth on the wing, but far from a necessity.

An option that would have been inconceivable two months ago: could the Sixers add another guard? Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe and Quentin Grimes have all been locked into heavy-minute roles, but it is still not happening for McCain. The Sixers do not have to trade McCain, but at some point he has to improve or they will no longer be able to justify playing him every night. Could they upgrade from him to a more stable guard, perhaps one with some defensive chops?

Everything is on the table – including subtracting, as the Sixers are about $7 million over the luxury tax threshold, which they have made efforts to get under in recent years. At that point, dealing Oubre and his $8.3 million expiring salary would be required and, at that point, replacing him with a cheap wing would become a priority.

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A possible backup center upgrade

A recent Sixers mailbag went rapid fire listing a bunch of options for the team if it wants to improve its center depth chart behind Embiid. One name that was not on that list because he should be in high demand: Day'Ron Sharpe, the Brooklyn Nets' 24-year-old backup center.

Sharpe, who makes $6.25 million this season with a team option for the same amount next season, is one of the most underrated per-minute producers at the position in the NBA. In 35 games this season, he is averaging 17.7 minutes per game and 15.2 points, 12.4 rebounds, 5.0 assists, 2.2 steals and 1.0 blocks per 36 minutes. His value does not rise to the level of any teams trading first-round picks, so the Sixers could use their abundance of second-rounders to get the deal done.

Brooklyn has a ridiculously large collection of second-rounders themselves, but could end up with none of them in 2027, so this deal includes both picks the Sixers own in that round in addition to one distant pick. The deal also enables the Sixers to have roster space for standard contract conversions for both Barlow and Walker:

Sharpe is a terrific rebounder and one of the more productive passing bigs in the NBA and has upward mobility. He could back up Embiid when the Sixers are healthy and step into a larger role if not. Sharpe has exclusively played center in Brooklyn, so it might be a shaky bet that he could play alongside Embiid. If he landed in Philadelphia, there is no reason Nurse could not try a double-big lineup with Sharpe and Embiid, but the Sixers' aforementioned depth at power forward might render the idea unnecessary.

Adding guard insurance

If the Sixers decide they have to investigate potential upgrades in the backcourt, their focus should be players without much trade value who can serve as spot-up three-point shooting threats with more focus on the defensive end of the floor. One option is veteran Jevon Carter, the victim of a numbers game with the Chicago Bulls and their crowded backcourt mix on an expiring contract worth $6.8 million.

Drummond is beloved in Chicago after his two-year stint there, and perhaps Chicago would rather be deeper inside than on the perimeter. Eric Gordon is in the deal to ensure the salary matches, and the Sixers dumping him enables them to free the roster space they need for their two-ways. It is difficult to imagine Gordon making it to March as a member of the Sixers because the Sixers need his salary and roster spot.

If Bona surges in the next few weeks – and perhaps Nurse decides he can lean more into Barlow and Walker as small-ball center options moving forward – it will become easier to justify trading the veteran Drummond in a deal like this:

Ultimately, this deal really hinges on McCain's struggles not just continuing, but escalating. At that point, Carter – a 38.0 percent three-point shooter on high volume over the last four seasons – would be a clear upgrade, not just because he would fill a better-fitting role on offense but because he is a true pest on the defensive end of the floor, where McCain is working very hard but remains a minus.

MORE: Who will lose playing time as Sixers reach full health?

Why the Sixers could ink a 10-day contract or two

The Sixers can only have any of their two-way players – Walker, Barlow and MarJon Beauchamp – active 14 more times while their standard roster has a vacant spot. Walker and Barlow have been active for every single game in which they have been healthy this season, and if the Sixers continue to keep them active without using Beauchamp, they can get up to their Jan. 26 road game against the Charlotte Hornets without issue. Before that game, something must change.

The simplest option – detailed at length here – would be converting one of Walker or Barlow before that game, utilizing the other player's remaining available days in the meantime with the sub-15 rule no longer relevant, clearing a roster spot at the trade deadline and then converting another player.

But what the Sixers could also do, for the sake of kicking the can down the road a bit and minimizing the eventual cap hits of Walker and Barlow on their new deals, is to sign a pair of consecutive 10-day contracts. It would put the Sixers' standard roster at 15 players temporarily, and if the Sixers did it twice they could get through the trade deadline before having to officially get working on Walker and Barlow.

With that in mind…

Who might be the best 10-day options?

These are always difficult to predict, as the Sixers could go in any number of directions here, whether it be a member of the Delaware Blue Coats, someone from another team's G League affiliate or an experienced veteran looking for one more spot to hang onto. But a younger player – specifically one still eligible to ink a two-way deal – could make sense, though, as the Sixers could get them in the organization on a pair of 10-day deals before signing them to a two-way contract to fill a spot vacated by Walker or Barlow.

The Sixers already nabbed Beauchamp from Delaware on a two-way deal. Odds are, next in line would be Malcolm Hill, who has 24 NBA games under his belt, spent time with the team in training camp on an Exhibit 10 contract and is shooting a ridiculous 44.2 percent from beyond the arc with the Blue Coats on 7.4 attempts per game. Another option would be Kennedy Chandler, averaging 18.4 points and 10.2 assists per game in Delaware after a few standout performances in training camp and preseason.

Some ball-handlers in the G League that could be options: former lottery pick Killian Hayes, averaging 25.0 points per game for the Cleveland Charge and Dalano Banton, who Nurse coached with the Raptors and is now averaging 23.6 points, 6.9 assists and 4.2 rebounds per game for the Texas Legends. They are both ineligible for two-way deals, though. Kobe Bufkin, a former first-round pick averaging 26.7 points per game for the South Bay Lakers, would be eligible for a two-way.

The Indiana Pacers' affiliate, the Noblesville Boom, features former collegiate star Kyle Guy averaging 21.1 points, 7.5 assists, 4.7 rebounds, 1.7 steals and 3.6 three-pointers per game. They also have Jalen Slawson, who impressed with the Sixers in 2025 NBA Summer League, now averaging 20.2 points, 6.2 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 1.4 steals per game.

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