76ers on waiving McGee: 'It was the right thing to do'

Like Spike Lee in the hot summer of 1989, all Sam Hinkie and Brett Brown want is to do the right thing.

In waiving JaVale McGee late Sunday, thereby making him eligible to join a playoff roster this season, the Philadelphia 76ers' braintrust believes it did just that.

Yes, paying someone $15 million to not play for your professional basketball team, so they can play for someone else's, is apparently the right thing to do. The Sixers recouped no money in waiving McGee without a buyout, paying out remainder of his 2014-15 salary and his entire $12-million salary for 2015-16, instead receiving only the Oklahoma City Thunder's top-18 protected pick from the Denver Nuggets and whatever good karma may come from being a bro to McGee.

"The move was done more because it was the right thing to do, we felt" Brown said Monday. "To give him the opportunity to go play with a playoff team. He was maligned. In my view, he was a hell of a teammate. He did nothing wrong. We're going to move on with younger guys."

McGee had previously said that he hoped to stay with the Sixers and mentor their young bigs, which is probably why he was unwilling to leave money on the table in a buyout. Instead, he's expected to land at the end of a contender's bench for the playoffs.

If the Sixers' maneuvering seems odd, it is, to a degree. They've essentially paid $15 million for a pick that won't land in the lottery and added a chunk of salary to their 2015-16 books to ensure they hit the salary floor. That's a heavy price for a pick, but if it's money the Sixers were going to struggle to spend anyway, there are worse ways to do it.