The Philadelphia 76ers are signing Dewayne Dedmon, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. Dedmon, a veteran big man who last played for the Miami Heat, was traded in a salary dump to the San Antonio Spurs before the deadline. The Spurs proceeded to waive Dedmon, allowing him to find a new team.
Backup center has been an enormous problem for the 76ers for essentially Joel Embiid's entire career. This season, the 76ers are nearly 12 points worse per 100 possessions when he goes to the bench, and his rest minutes and missed games have played key components in playoff losses to the Raptors (2019), Hawks (2021) and Heat (2022).
Philadelphia is hoping that Dedmon can help reverse those trends, but his play this season has been underwhelming. He played a career-low 11.7 minutes per game for a Heat team that ultimately moved him without receiving value in return. At his peak he offered a valuable combination of shooting and rim-protection, but he's made less than 30 percent of his 3-pointers this season and has lost a fair bit athletically with age.
Of course, beggars can't be choosers. Philadelphia's alternatives at center without Embiid are Montrezl Harrell, a notoriously poor playoff defender who played a key role in the 2020 Los Angeles Clippers blowing a 3-1 lead to the Denver Nuggets, and Paul Reed, a hustle player who frequently makes costly mistakes.
In all likelihood, the 76ers plan to address this issue in the playoffs by using P.J. Tucker as a backup center, but wanted another body for the remainder of the regular season so as to avoid putting unnecessary wear and tear on Tucker. In Dedmon, they've found a serviceable enough regular-season backup to tide them over until the games start to really count.
