Sixers tweak roster

Philadelphia used one of the last roster levers it had before the playoffs: it cut Cameron Payne on April 10 and turned Dalen Terry’s two-way deal into a standard National Basketball Association contract, according to team and league reports. (nba.com) (nbcphiladelphia.com) That move sounds small until you get to the rule behind it: players on two-way contracts cannot appear in the playoffs, so a team has to promote one before the postseason if it wants to use him in a series. Philadelphia had signed Terry to a two-way contract on February 10, 2026, which made this decision almost inevitable if the team wanted his minutes in April. (nba.com) (nbcphiladelphia.com) Terry is not a mystery flyer from overseas or the G League. He was the 18th pick in the 2022 National Basketball Association draft by the Chicago Bulls, and Tony Jones of The Athletic reported that his new Philadelphia deal includes a team option for next season. (nbcphiladelphia.com) (metrophiladelphia.com) Since joining Philadelphia, Terry has played 13 games and averaged 4.3 points, 1.8 assists, and 1.5 rebounds in 13.0 minutes a night. Those are end-of-rotation numbers, but they are also the exact kind of low-cost wing minutes teams keep around in case a playoff game turns into a foul problem or an injury scramble. (nbcphiladelphia.com) Payne was the player squeezed out because Philadelphia only had one standard roster spot to work with. The Sixers had signed him on February 18, 2026, and Spotrac lists his deal as a one-year contract worth $1,127,841, with a dead-cap hit of $712,637 after the waiver. (nba.com) (spotrac.com) The team listing also tagged Payne’s exit with a hamstring note, which helps explain why the Sixers chose the younger, healthier body at the back of the roster. In April, playoff teams usually stop thinking about the 11th man as a regular-season innings eater and start thinking about who can actually be available on two days’ notice in Game 2 or Game 5. (nba.com) (sports.yahoo.com) This also fits the churn Philadelphia has had since the trade deadline. The team transaction log shows Terry arriving on February 10, Payne on February 18, Jabari Walker getting a standard deal on February 19, and Tyrese Martin taking a two-way slot that same day, which is the kind of constant patchwork you see from a team trying to survive injuries and still field a playoff bench. (nba.com) So the real story is not that Terry suddenly became a core piece on April 10. It is that Philadelphia used its final standard contract spot on a 23-year-old wing it can legally dress in the postseason now and potentially keep under team control for 2026-27. (metrophiladelphia.com) (nbcphiladelphia.com)