The Sixers on Sunday night announced the signing of the youngest player on their summer league roster, 19-year-old rookie Michael Foster Jr.
It's an Exhibit 10 contract, a source told NBC Sports Philadelphia.
Exhibit 10 deals are one-year, minimum salary contracts that enable teams to offer a bonus incentivizing a player to join their G League affiliate (in the case of the Sixers, the Delaware Blue Coats). They can be converted into two-way contracts before the start of the regular season.
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Several prominent NBA draft analysts viewed Foster as one of the best players not selected this year. Bleacher Report’s Jonathan Wasserman ranked Foster No. 2 among undrafted prospects at summer league. He fell No. 3 on ESPN’s list of “best available” players following the draft, while Sports Illustrated’s Jeremy Woo had Foster second on his post-draft big board.
At the NBA draft combine, Foster was 6-7.75 without shoes and 236.6 pounds with a wingspan a touch over 7 feet. He told NBA Draft Big Board’s Rafael Barlowe he’d hit a goal of reaching 250 pounds and then been told he should slim down.
A five-star high school recruit, Foster committed to Arizona State in 2017, but the Milwaukee native eventually decided to join G League Ignite. Playing alongside top-40 picks Dyson Daniels, MarJon Beauchamp and Jaden Hardy, Foster averaged 15.5 points and 9.5 rebounds in 25 games last season.
Across four appearances thus far with the Sixers in the Salt Lake City and Las Vegas summer leagues, Foster has 14 points on 6-for-19 shooting (1 for 3 from three-point range), 16 rebounds, three blocks and two steals. He’s flashed a bit of his offensive skill and also showed some promise as a rim protector.
NBA teams can have up to 20 players on their roster during the offseason. By opening night, they must cut down to a maximum of 15 players on the active roster plus two two-way contracts.
The Sixers’ current two-way players are Charlie Brown Jr. and Julian Champagnie. In addition to those two, the Sixers have 11 players on fully guaranteed contracts for the 2022-23 season (not including James Harden). Paul Reed and Isaiah Joe are on non-guaranteed deals, while Charles Bassey and Trevelin Queen have partially guaranteed contracts. Yahoo Sports’ Chris Haynes reported on draft night that Georgetown product Aminu Mohammed agreed to an Exhibit 10 deal with the Sixers.