Sixers sign James Michael McAdoo to two-way contract

The Sixers have made the first of their two-way contract signings, choosing to bring 24-year-old big man James Michael McAdoo into the fold, according to a report from Michael Scotto of Basketball Insiders.

For those of you out of the loop on how the new two-way contracts will work, here’s a brief primer:

• Players signed to these two-way contracts effectively get extra roster spots on top of the usual 15
• A player on a two-way contract can spend a maximum of 45 days with the NBA club they’re signed to. There is no minimum time required with the NBA team, and the rest of the player’s time must be spent with a G-League affiliate
• Players on two-way contracts will make $75,000 while playing in the D-League. During the days the player can spend in the NBA, two-way players accrue service time equivalent to that of the NBA rookie minimum, approximately $816,000 next season. That comes out to a maximum of about $204,000 in the 45 day window, bringing the grand total of around $279,000 if a player spends the maximum amount of days with his NBA club.

As far as McAdoo is concerned, It’s a semi-curious way to use one of the team’s two-way contracts, since McAdoo is just another frontcourt body for a team that doesn’t really need any more of those. He’s a fine enough player, and young enough that I guess you could say he has some upside left in him, but if the Sixers end up in a position where he needs to play minutes, they’d be in big trouble. The Sixers aren’t in dire need of an “energy guy” in the frontcourt, and that’s about all McAdoo is.

While you’d like to see them using this sort of resource on someone who could potentially make more of an impact on the program—a developmental guard or wing project perhaps?—McAdoo can eat some minutes for you in a pinch, and maybe bring the #LightYears secrets over from the Warriors. Just keep Joel Embiid healthy so we don’t have to worry too much about McAdoo, Sixers.