The Philadelphia 76ers announced Wednesday that backup big man Montrezl Harrell suffered a torn ACL and meniscus during offseason workouts. Although they didn't announce a timetable for his return, it's fair to expect him to miss the entire 2023-24 NBA season.

Harrell declined his $2.8 million player option ahead of free agency only to re-sign with the Sixers on a one-year, veteran-minimum deal. At first, that looked like a win-win option for both the player and the team financially. Harrell's minimum deal is worth roughly $130,000 more than his player option was, but he has only a $2.0 million cap hit because of NBA rules governing one-year, vet-min contracts.

The Sixers arguably shouldn't have re-signed Harrell after he opted out, particularly once they signed fellow backup big man Mo Bamba. Harrell effectively fell out of the rotation behind Joel Embiid and Paul Reed after the trade deadline last season, and he projected to play a similarly meager role barring injuries this coming year.

Harrell's contract is fully guaranteed, so waiving him in the wake of this injury would come with no financial benefit other than opening an additional roster spot. That could come in handy if they trade James Harden and take multiple players back, but they could also use his deal as salary-matching fodder at the trade deadline.

In the meantime, the Sixers could use Harrell’s injury to give themselves a possible edge later in the season by applying for a disabled player exception.

If a league-appointed physician agrees that Harrell is unlikely to play in the 2023-24 season, the Sixers would gain a salary-cap exception worth 50% of his salary this year, or nearly $1.45 million. That would allow them to sign someone to that amount, trade for someone making that amount (plus $100,000) or make a waiver claim on someone making that amount (plus $100,000).

You might not think that sounds like a lot in terms of NBA salaries these days, and you'd be right. The minimum salary for a player with at least one year of NBA experience this season is $1.8 million. If the Sixers planned to sign someone anytime soon, they'd be better off waiving Harrell and using another veteran-minimum exception to do so (if not some portion of their untouched $5 million taxpayer mid-level exception).

However, the DPE comes with one key feature: Unlike the mid-level, bi-annual and vet-min exceptions, it doesn't prorate over the course of the season.

Beginning Jan. 10 of each season, all three of those exceptions begin dwindling by slightly less than 0.5 percentage points every day. Come mid-February, a veteran-minimum deal will be less than $900,000, while the Sixers could have $1.45 million of their DPE to offer someone who gets bought out after the trade deadline.

Money will be one of only many factors that priority post-deadline targets evaluate as they weigh their options. They'll also consider the role that each team is offering, their proximity to championship contention and perhaps location, among other things. If the Sixers aren't a top-tier contender come mid-February, they'll likely be buried down the list of top buyout destinations regardless of how much money they have to offer.

A few technicalities could complicate the Sixers' use of the DPE, too. First, Harrell would need to remain on the roster between the time they applied for it and the time that the NBA approved it. In addition, it expires on March 10 if it remains unused at that point.

The league has yet to announce the date of the 2024 trade deadline, but if history holds to form, it'll be sometime around Feb. 6-10. That would give the Sixers roughly a month after the trade deadline to peruse the buyout market and attempt to coax a free agent to join them for the stretch run via the DPE.

The NBA's new collective bargaining agreement added another wrinkle: limiting which teams can sign certain players on the buyout market.

Under the new CBA, teams above either the first or second salary-cap apron in a given year cannot sign players on the buyout market who were earning more than the non-taxpayer mid-level exception. The Sixers are currently $300,000 over the first apron with 14 players under contract, although the looming Harden trade could impact that depending on how much salary they send out and how much they take back.

Last year, the Sixers would have been prohibited signing players such as Russell Westbrook, Kevin Love or Terrence Ross on the buyout market. However, they still could have signed center Dewayne Dedmon, whom they (unfathomably) did sign. The same goes for Deandre Jordan, whom they signed after a buyout in 2021-22.

If the Sixers still have the taxpayer MLE at their disposal after the trade deadline, that will be a far bigger payday to dangle toward any prospective buyout targets. But if they spend that between now and then, the DPE would be at least slightly more money to offer than only a veteran-minimum deal.

Getting a DPE in the wake of Harrell's ACL and meniscus tear would be a slight edge at best. There's no guarantee that they'd use it at all, and it likely wouln't meaningfully shift their title odds in either direction even if they do. But there's zero downside to doing so and seeing how (or if) to use it over the coming months.

Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac or RealGM. All odds via FanDuel Sportsbook.