Daryl Morey, 76ers Make Dewayne Dedmon Signing Official

Daryl Morey announces on Tuesday that the 76ers signed Dewayne Dedmon.

The Philadelphia 76ers have officially acquired a new center. On Tuesday morning, Sixers President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey announced that the team had signed the veteran big man, Dewayne Dedmon. As usual, the details of the contract have not been revealed, per Sixers policy.

Philadelphia’s interest in Dedmon was apparent on Monday morning. As the buyout market was beginning to form, it was clear the Sixers would be on the hunt for another veteran big man to bring into the picture, and Dedmon was on their radar and negotiating a potential deal.

With the Dedmon signing official, he takes up the final roster spot that the Sixers made available before the 2022-2023 NBA season started by waiving both young prospects, Isaiah Joe and Charles Bassey. 

Dedmon started this season with the Miami Heat. In 30 games, he spent an average of 12 minutes on the court, producing six points and four rebounds per game. The last time he played was on February 4 in a matchup against the Milwaukee Bucks. He checked in for 12 minutes. It was Dedmon’s first set of action in 11 games.

Ahead of last Thursday’s trade deadline, the Heat moved Dedmon to the San Antonio Spurs in a trade. Considering the Spurs are in a rebuild, it only made sense for the 33-year-old veteran big man to hit the open market and sign with a contending team.

The Sixers will bring on Dedmon to add some competition behind Joel Embiid. Throughout the season, Doc Rivers has rotated backup bigs, utilizing Montrezl Harrell and Paul Reed in different situations. The Sixers started with Harrell as the primary backup before going to Reed for a stretch.

Once Reed started struggling, Harrell took over for some time. Lately, Reed’s been back in the mix, with Harrell picking up a few minutes in garbage time here and there. It’s unclear how the addition of Dedmon will affect the Sixers’ plans for the minutes behind Embiid, but there will be another option in the mix potentially as early as Wednesday.

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for All76ers, a Sports Illustrated channel. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.