PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The Philadelphia 76ers made their first two free-agent moves under new team president Mike Gansey, agreeing to a deal with Knicks center Ariel Hukporti on Wednesday after reaching a deal with veteran forward Dean Wade a night earlier, a person with knowledge of the agreements told The Associated Press.
The 76ers added frontcourt depth by picking up Hukporti from the NBA champion New York Knicks, agreeing to a $3.4 million, one-year
deal. They agreed to a $39 million, four-year deal with Wade, according to the person who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the deals cannot be signed until the league’s offseason moratorium is lifted on July 6.
Hukporti averaged just 2.2 points in 54 games with the Knicks and will add some frontcourt depth behind two-time NBA scoring champion Joel Embiid and Adem Bona. The 24-year-old Hukporti, who is from Germany, was the final pick of the 2024 draft by Dallas and had his rights traded that night to the Knicks.
Wade was the first big offseason deal made by new 76ers president of basketball operations Gansey. Gansey joined the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2011 and worked as their general manager since 2022 before he left for Philadelphia and long championed Wade, who went undrafted in 2019 out of Kansas State.
The 6-foot-9 Wade spent his entire seven-year NBA career with the Cavaliers. He never has averaged more than 6.0 points in a season and is expected to become a key rotation player in Philadelphia.
The 29-year-old Wade has played 32 career playoff games.
He could slot in at forward and join a starting rotation that includes the aging Embiid and Paul George while the Sixers try to build around Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe.
The Sixers went 45-37 last season and were swept in the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs by the Knicks. Daryl Morey was fired in the aftermath of the sweep and replaced by Gansey — who now made his stamp on the Sixers by bringing in a familiar face from Cleveland.
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