Free agency tips off in just a handful of hours, and by time Tuesday night turns into Wednesday morning there will be many high-profile NBA players to have changed teams.

Will any of those players be tied to the Sixers?

Kelly Oubre Jr. and Quentin Grimes are the Sixers' primary free agents; what the Sixers do with those players will determine how much spending power they have elsewhere. They will not be in play for star-caliber players this summer, but new Sixers President of Basketball Operations Mike Gansey could try to make changes to the group of players tasked with fitting around Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, Paul George and VJ Edgecombe.

Tuesday morning means time to answer your latest Sixers questions:

From @sck8182: When will the new Sixers president make his first significant trade for the Sixers in your view?

Gansey trading George this summer would certainly be a significant trade in my eyes, even if the primary purpose of it is to reorient the team's cap sheet. It is tremendously difficult to build a championship contender with the vast majority of the salary cap wrapped up in three players; that is the Sixers' current standing. If Embiid and George were productive enough to justify their salaries, the Sixers would be just fine. Clearly, that has not been the case.

Embiid, set to begin his three-year supermax extension, is probably a nonstarter in any trade talks this summer. Sixers fans clamoring to see him moved should consider that other NBA teams know why he is such a distressed asset. Trading Maxey feels premature, even if there might be a case for it not that far down the line depending on how the next year or two transpire. Trading Edgecombe would be nonsensical.

So, if you want to see a "significant" trade, the attention turns to George, under contract for two more years at about $110 million. The Sixers could trade him for the sake of turning his $54 million salary slot into two, three or even four players, accumulate depth and get out of their three-max roster build. But George, though not unmovable, definitely does not have tons of trade value right now, with two massively expensive years left on his deal.

I think Gansey's first window to really examine a big swing will be next summer. George will almost certainly pick up his player option worth nearly $56.6 million; that would become one of the largest expiring contracts in NBA history. Could that, in tandem with some of their many future draft picks, land the Sixers the next disgruntled star to ask out of their current situation? In some cases, George's contract will be big enough that the Sixers could offer the nine-time All-Star – presumably still a very productive two-way wing capable of fitting into any roster – plus draft picks, while also being able to take back an unwanted salary in addition to the star they are chasing.

To be clear, this is far from a prediction that Gansey will trade for a star next summer. But George's gigantic expiring deal could at least open the window. Otherwise, Embiid will have an even larger expiring deal the following summer and the exact value of the Los Angeles' 2028 unprotected first-rounder owned by the Sixers will be known. That could be another opportunity to make a major change.

Truthfully, the Sixers' primary concern right now should not be positioning themselves to trade for the next disgruntled star – it should be ensuring Maxey is not that player, with a contract extension potentially being on the table next summer.

MORE: Sixers tap 'dynamic' Labaron Philon Jr. as newest member of young nucleus

From @JoelHinkieMaxey: Why do you think the Sixers weren’t interested in Isaiah Stewart? Seems like a great fit at the 4/5. If they traded for him (or anyone else) into the MLE, are they still able to use the BAE? Are there any other restrictions when trading in the MLE or BAE vs. just signing someone?

Stewart would have unquestionably been an awesome fit. As you said, he can play power forward or center given his three-point shooting prowess and elite rim protection. He would have also brought an edge and a toughness that this team could have used. Stewart would have been the best backup center Embiid has ever had, under contract for $15 million this season with a team option at the same number next year.

The Sixers could have traded three second-round picks to the Detroit Pistons just as the Memphis Grizzlies did. Stewart would have immediately taken up just about the entirety of the Sixers' non-taxpayer's mid-level exception – which can be used as a trade exception, as I explored on Saturday.

However, that move would have hard-capped the Sixers at the first apron before the start of free agency, likely taking them out of Grimes' market entirely and putting them in a difficult position when it came to retaining Oubre.

As odd as it might sound, such a move might have seemed much more palatable on July 5 than it did on June 24, when Memphis and Detroit agreed to terms. In short order, the Sixers will have strong senses of exactly what it will take to retain Grimes and Oubre and what their potential free-agency alternatives are.

If the Sixers use the non-taxpayer's mid-level exception – worth a maximum of four years and $64.7 million – they would also have access to the bi-annual exception, projected to be worth two years and $11.2 million. They would have to stay under the first apron in the process of all of this.

On Saturday, I posted a 20-minute breakdown of a few different pathways the Sixers have in free agency when it comes to Grimes, Oubre and the mid-level exception. Give that a watch here if you are interested in even more depth on all of the salary-cap ramifications of possible Sixers additions this summer.

From @mediamandan75: Realistically, what are they going to do with Johni Broome and is there any future where he is a usable roster piece?

The most direct answer I can give: realistically, the Sixers are going to bring Broome into the 2026-27 season as part of their standard roster and hope he proves there is a future where he is a usable roster piece.

Broome's rookie season could not have been less inspiring; of his 11 regular-season appearances only one was not a pure garbage-time outing. Across 55 minutes, he shot 4-for-24 from the field. Broome spent much of the season in the G League with the Delaware Blue Coats, and just as he was finding a real rhythm there he tore his meniscus. Broome returned in time to be active for the playoffs, but once again was limited to eating up minutes at the ends of blowouts.

As accomplished of a collegiate player as Broome was, the Sixers selecting him at No. 35 overall in the 2025 NBA Draft was met with confusion from a lot of folks. And after a lost rookie season, the clock is ticking on a player whose 24th birthday is a few weeks away. Broome was the final draft pick made by Daryl Morey in Philadelphia; Morey answered a question of mine about that dynamic last summer by saying "I don't really agree with" the notion that there was more pressure on Broome to produce early. "But I do think you'd hope he can get out there by the end of this year, or year two," he added.

Broome's salary of about $2.15 million is fully guaranteed for 2026-27. The remaining two seasons in his four-year entry-level contract do not have one penny of guaranteed salary. The pressure is on Broome to produce as a sophomore – or at least show signs of someone on the doorstep of being a contributor.

It has been somewhat odd to see so many Sixers fans completely write off the idea of Broome being remotely viable on an NBA floor given how little he has actually been on one. This is not to suggest Broome is necessarily a diamond in the rough, but Sixers fans have gone to bat for many players with large sample sizes of being worse than replacement level in the NBA. But the fact is that Broome did nothing to intrigue anybody during his garbage-time minutes, and evidently his behind-the-scenes work and practice performances were not enough to get him rotation minutes.

During the Sixers' second-round playoff series against the New York Knicks in May, I caught up with Broome about a few different subjects, primarily his emergence as part of the Sixers' enthusiastic "Bench Mob" being credited by stars for keeping spirits high on the sideline. One of my other questions to Broome: How have you handled not playing for the first time in your basketball life?

"Obviously, this is not the role that I would have imagined or whatever [in] my first year in the NBA," Broome told PhillyVoice. "But I just want to win, and that's what – if this is what my role is, I'm going to do it to the best of my ability if it helps my team win. Moving forward, whatever my role is, I'm going to do it to the best of my ability."

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