If the Sixers are going to make a move between now and the Feb. 6 NBA trade deadline, it’s likely to involve KJ Martin. They signed him to an above-market two-year, $16 million contract this past offseason for that exact reason.
Since the Sixers are over the first apron, they aren’t allowed to take back more salary via a standard trade exception than they send out. They can aggregate two smaller contracts for a bigger salary since they’re roughly $6.2 million below the second apron, though. If they do aggregate two contracts for a bigger salary, they’ll be hard-capped at the second apron, which means they cannot exceed that threshold under any circumstance for the remainder of the league year.