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NBA rumors: Why Jared McCain’s Thunder breakout will put pressure on 76ers in free agency
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- NBA rumors: Why Jared McCain’s Thunder breakout will put pressure on 76ers in free agency
NBA rumors: Why Jared McCain's Thunder breakout will put pressure on 76ers in free agency appeared first on ClutchPoints . Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here .
The Philadelphia 76ers will face several key roster decisions this summer after parting ways with Daryl Morey. Quentin Grimes ' unrestricted free agency will be near the top of the list.
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The 76ers chose to keep Grimes over Jared McCain at the deadline, trading the latter to the Oklahoma City Thunder for a first-round pick and three second-round picks. McCain's playoff performance for the Thunder is ramping up the pressure on the 76ers to retain Grimes, according to ESPN's Tim Bontemps.
"With Jared McCain 's emergence as a critical piece of Oklahoma City 's push to return to the NBA Finals for a second straight year, the pressure on the 76ers to retain Grimes grows by the day," Bontemps wrote. "Keeping Grimes — along with fellow free agent wing Kelly Oubre Jr . — would cause Philadelphia to go well into the luxury tax, something the team has repeatedly avoided in recent years. It will be one of the first important decisions for whoever is hired to replace [Daryl] Morey."
Grimes was a core member of the 76ers' rotation this season after signing his one-year, $8.7 million qualifying offer last offseason.
Will 76ers bring back Quentin Grimes in unrestricted free agency?
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The 26-year-old appeared in 75 games with 19 starts, averaging 13.4 points, 3.6 rebounds and 3.3 assists on .450/.334/.840 shooting splits in 29.4 minutes per night. While Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe are penciled in as the 76ers' backcourt of the future , Grimes is the team's most established backup guard.
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One Western Conference executive said the 76ers "will get crushed" if they don't spend into the tax to retain Grimes or Oubre.
"I do think [Grimes] stays there out of pressure," the exec told ESPN. "You have to keep at least one of [Grimes or Oubre], if not both, after that trade… And if they don't go into the tax, they're going to get crushed."
Bontemps reported that the league-wide belief is that the 76ers will pay to retain Grimes on a deal approaching the non-taxpayer mid-level exception, which is projected at $15,048,000.
"The belief overall is that Grimes will land something at or below the midlevel exception, and ultimately, it will come from the 76ers," he wrote.
Related: WCF Game 5 proves ex-76ers' Daryl Morey did not sell high on Jared McCain
