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The Sixers are likely to place a waiver claim for former Kansas forward Thomas Robinson by today's 5 p.m. deadline, Yahoo!'s Adrian Wojnarowski reports.
Philadelphia is likely to place a claim on Thomas Robinson and secure him via waivers, league sources tell Yahoo Sports. Deadline's 5 PM ET.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) February 24, 2015
Wojnarowski also went on to say that if Philadelphia does not put in a claim, Robinson will sign a ten-day contract with the Brooklyn Nets. He seemed quite eager to join the Nets, taking to social media to thank Brooklyn for picking him up, but a claim by the Sixers would certainly kill that deal.
There seems to be a couple motivations behind picking up Robinson. For one, he's just two years removed from being the 5th overall pick of the 2012 NBA Draft. He started his rookie season in Sacramento before being traded to Houston, and previously spent the last two seasons in Portland. He was traded on deadline day to Denver as a part of the Arron Afflalo deal, but was bought out by the Nuggets immediately.
Robinson's been rather well traveled due to his limited offensive effectiveness, but was never truly given a large role on any of his three previous teams. He's averaged just 13.5 minutes for his career, scoring 4.6 points and grabbing 4.4 rebounds per game.
With all the roster shuffling the Sixers do and the many players they give the opportunity, putting in a claim for Robinson is an absolute no brainer.
It also makes sense from a financial standpoint. Philadelphia is just outside the cap floor, and picking up Robinson would get them over that.
If #sixers pick up Robinson, will be on hook for remainder of his ~$3.7m contract. His option for next season was not picked up by Portland.
— Derek Bodner (@DerekBodnerNBA) February 24, 2015
I have to check the numbers, but I think the waiver claim would put the #sixers above the salary cap floor.
— Derek Bodner (@DerekBodnerNBA) February 24, 2015
Not getting to the cap floor isn't a huge deal. Whatever money they're short by just gets divided between the players, but if you got it, might as well spend it.
The question becomes who gets sacrificed to make room for Robinson. With the recent addition of Ish Smith, guard Tim Frazier seems to be a likely candidate.