The 76ers are facing an urgent deadline as the roster crunch now means painful cuts

The Philadelphia 76ers, like all teams, are very aware of the trade deadline, which is less than three weeks away. However, that’s not the only thing they’re keeping a close eye on. After all, they are nearing their playing limit with their two-way players, which should lead to some attendant cuts in the front office.

Dominick Barlow and Jabari Walker, who were regulars for the 76ers in their rotation, can only be made available for four more games. With the 76ers having fewer than 15 players on standard deals, Barlow and Walker have almost reached their limits as two-way players, so the front office has no choice but to drop the inevitable hammer and start making the expected roster cuts.

Philly could do something for his 15th roster spot by using the 10-day contracts, but the more immediate solution to this would be to convert both players’ deals from two-way to standard deals. But to do so, they will obviously have to part with another player, although it shouldn’t take a long search to find out which player they need to cut ties with to do so.

The 76ers must make the inevitable roster cuts and convert the deals of Dominick Barlow and Jabari Walker

Without even having to deal with the task of selecting from a roster, the 76ers should already be saying goodbye to Eric Gordon, who has barely scratched the field this season. Now in his 18th season, he doesn’t have much left in the tank, if at all, and Philly can no longer afford to play the role of retirement home for him.

Gordon is a one-trick pony at this point in his career and should be the victim of this selection crisis without question. He doesn’t offer anything the 76ers don’t, and even with the off-court stuff, they already have veterans like Kyle Lowry to bolster the locker room.

Barlow and Walker have made significant contributions to this season. The former have emerged as their starting force and are impacting the game at both ends without requiring much maintenance. On the other hand, the latter has given the 76ers some much-needed extra depth at the forward positions, which has been their weak link in recent years.

The Philadelphia 76ers have only one clear solution to this roster challenge, and it really shouldn’t take them that long to make the decision. Hopefully they’ll just get over it.