This Sixers ownership has long held that they’d be willing to pay the luxury tax. We very recently got confirmation from them in February, March and again in May that that was still the case and applied specifically to this core of Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons, Jimmy Butler and Tobias Harris.
Ever since Elton Brand made a huge splash back in early February when he added Tobias Harris to the team’s core, we’ve heard that the Sixers intend to keep this core together because they believe it’s title worthy. Even if that means paying the luxury tax. After seeing how close they were to defeating the Toronto Raptors in the Eastern Conference Semi Finals, and before he even knew the Raptors would go on to plow through the Bucks and Warriors with less resistance than his Sixers showed, team owner Josh Harris was adamant he’d pay the tax once again.