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Sixers waive Anderson before free-agent market opens

The 76ers parted ways Monday with James Anderson, on the eve of the NBA's free-agency period. The 6-foot-6 shooting guard would have received a guaranteed $1.08 million had he remained on the roster past Monday.

Former 76ers guard James Anderson. (David Zalubowski/AP)
Former 76ers guard James Anderson. (David Zalubowski/AP)Read more

The 76ers parted ways Monday with James Anderson, on the eve of the NBA's free-agency period.

The 6-foot-6 shooting guard would have received a guaranteed $1.06 million had he remained on the roster past Monday.

The Sixers aren't likely to go after high-level free agents; they are expected to identify a few lower-level players.

"I think we will be open-minded," general manager Sam Hinkie said of the free-agency period, which begins Tuesday. "I don't know exactly what we will do there. People look for opportunities and we will go from there."

The salary cap for NBA teams is expected to rise from $58.6 million to $63.2 million for the 2014-15 season. So far, the Sixers have only about $23.4 million tied up in guaranteed contracts. That does not include the projected $3.6 million that Joel Embiid will receive as the third overall pick in Thursday's draft.

Anderson will not get to play with the 7-foot center. In addition to saving money, the Sixers opened up opportunities for their young players by releasing the 25-year-old.

Anderson averaged 10.1 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.9 assists in his lone season with the Sixers. He started 62 games. Anderson scored a career-high 36 points against the Houston Rockets on Nov. 13, the most scored by a Sixer since Willie Green went for 37 against the Toronto Raptors on April 18, 2007. Anderson also scored 30 against the Rockets on March 27.

The Sixers picked him up on waivers on July 16, 2013, shortly after he was released by the Rockets. The team could opt to pluck players from the waiver wire, as it did last summer.

The Sixers also could use their salary-cap space to waive and sign players throughout the season.

"Our cap space last year was used in several ways," Hinkie said. "One was to pick up some of these [second-round picks] that we used [in the draft] and other future seconds. Some is to pick up [the rights to] international players like [Turkish power forward] Furkan Aldemir, who we traded for last year. Those are all sorts of possibilities."

The Sixers will release their summer-league roster when they open summer-league minicamp Tuesday at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine.

The team will travel to Florida on Friday for the Orlando Summer League, which runs from Saturday through July 11. They also will compete July 12-21 in the Las Vegas Summer League.

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