Reed signing three-year, $24 million offer sheet with Jazz; Sixers have through Sunday to match

Sixers backup center Paul Reed is signing a three-year, $24 million offer sheet from the Utah Jazz. Shams Chararnia of The Athletic was the first one to break the news.

Philadelphia is now on the clock. They have until 11:59 p.m. ET Sunday to match.

The Utah Jazz had cap space to spare and apparently saw something they liked from the Philadelphia fan favorite, “B-Ball” Paul.

Reed finally earned the full-time backup role to Joel Embiid in the middle of last season. He played an important role in the Sixers sweeping the Brooklyn Nets in round one and helped the team steal Game 1 up in Boston during round two. Two of those wins came when Embiid was out of the lineup nursing a knee injury.

Reed averaged 13.7 points, 12.5 rebounds, 2.2 steals, and 2.4 blocks per 36 minutes in a career high 755 minutes last season.

The $8M average annual salary isn’t too much for the Sixers to match in terms of cap space. After allowing Georges Niang, Shake Milton and Jalen McDaniels to walk, they’ll have the room to match. They also got a surprise windfall when James Harden opted into his contract, saving them potentially millions more. They would cross the luxury tax payer’s threshold, however. They’re now $1.5M from the tax line. They ducked the tax a season ago, and will likely exceed the threshold when they finalize their roster either way. But by how much?

Do they want to match? After signing Mo Bamba, and Montrezl Harrell, retaining Reed would mean rostering four centers. It’s certainly not ideal. But Reed for this seemingly team-friendly price, would seem to be the better value than the other two bigs, even at veteran’s minimum salaries.

Before Reed signed, Kyle Neubeck of PhillyVoice recently speculated that the odds were only about 50-50 the team would aim to keep the 24-year old.

If the Sixers let Reed walk it would signal that they’re putting a major emphasis on limiting tax payments and preserving cap flexibility for the future. Our Bryan Toporek recently highlighted a scenario where the Sixers, if they had no one on their books beyond 2023-2024 besides Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid could offer upwards of $60M to the 2024 free agent class.

Would Reed on a three-year deal present an obstacle to that possible grand plan in their minds? Could they find a taker for him in a pinch next summer if a talent like O.G. Anunoby wanted to join? We should have our answer on how they value Reed sometime between Saturday afternoon and Sunday night.

According to Woj, the Jazz have apparently attempted to dissuade Daryl Morey from matching.

Fully guaranteeing the final two years of the deal if Reed’s team makes the second round, that’s something that’s a lot more likely to happen in Philadelphia than in Utah. Reed would only earn $7.7M in year one of the deal.

The Sixers are also probably factoring in trade scenarios here. Would matching Reed’s offer sheet make any potential trades in the works more challenging? Would they potentially eye a replacement in a deal with a team like the Clippers, Bulls, or Blazers? With James Harden’s trade request, it seems all types of surprise scenarios are in play.

Daryl Morey, you’re on the clock.